Special Squid Service
by MaizeTheYellowInkling
Summary: After captain cuttlefish creates a website, for others to request help secretly from the agents. Callie Marie and Agent 3 find themselves handling problems, together or separately. How will the agents handle these missions however? And how will these missions affect them? Please Review. (COMPLETED!)
1. Website

**Authors Note: Hi all, I hope you all enjoy my first splatoon fic, please tell me what you think of it. And enjoy!**

It was a normal afternoon in Inkopolis. The sun was beginning to set off in the distance as light was slowly leaving to allow darkness to take over. The city of Inkopolis was decent in size and was most famously known for their turf wars, and how fresh the citizens were. At least most of them. Anyhow, the main inhabitants of this city were inklings, teenagers with the ability to transform from squids into kids at their own free will.

Walking along the streets was one young boy who had bright yellow tentacles for hair which reached his shoulders in length, and both tentacles were brushed onto one side. He had black rings around his eyes, but was also dawning a pair of glasses. He also wore a light blue shirt the front of the shirt had a drawing of a fiery flower, and he wore simple sneakers. His favorite charger weapon was rested neatly on his back. He was Maize, a rookie compared to other inklings. He enjoyed the peace of Inkopolis, and enjoyed the dusk of the hour. He walked over a small side path, and soon arrived to the Inkopolis Plaza Centre. What stood out the most from it was the Battle Tower dead ahead, that was huge in size, but had the Great Zapfish on top of it, powering all of Inkopolis.

"Night or day, the turfs are always waiting to be sprayed," he chuckled, seeing the populated area ahead. There was a row of stores nearby and a large populace of other inklings of various colours and sizes. Turf Wars were simple; the team that had the most area of the location covered in their ink won. Pure messy fun that brought a smile to anyone in it. It didn't even matter if the player won or lost. It was greatly entertaining to the yellow tentacle haired inkling. Maize wished he could do a few turf wars right now, but he was here for another reason and couldn't be distracted. The teenage inkling pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and looked at a text message on it.

"Come over to the studio as soon as you can." He received the message about two hours ago, and the sender had the tag 'captain' on the phone. Maize pocketed his cellphone before continuing on his way to the right part of the plaza. The place looked beautiful to his eyes, and at least every inkling's eyes. He passed by one place in particular, which was a big building that had a huge television on the front of it. The yellow squid boy saw a recording area setup through a glass window. The room looked dark, the boy presuming the lights to be off. He saw various cameras set up in front of another small television inside. Maize knew this to be the news station for Inkopolis, where two of the most famous people in all of town provided information throughout the day every day of every week. He assumed they were at home now.

"Well, I better get inside," Maize told himself, heading around to the side entrance. There was a set of double doors there. He noticed an immediate problem. The huge guard stood before him, wearing a black suit and sunglasses, and no hair on his head.

"Oh, hey there. Can you step aside? I need to get inside," Maize requested, the guard leaning on the doors, balancing between his nightshift duties and sleeping.

"Eh? Sorry, squiddy. I can't let you in unless you have special permission or are with a worker here," the guard claimed. He seemed friendly, despite his appearance. Maize tilted his head. He had been here multiple times before when meeting two of his closest friends, mostly because they didn't trust him to be at their home.

"But I'm friends with the Squid Sisters. Can't you just cut me some slack?" Maize retorted. That comment made the security squid chuckle and shake his head from hearing that.

"Everyone is friends with the Squid Sisters. I'll tell you what. I'll do you a favor and when they come in tomorrow, I'll tell'em you were here," the guard kept firm on the refusal to allow him in. This was not going to work. Maize groaned to himself. He had to get inside somehow. Suddenly, the young inkling had an idea. The guard was turned around, so the yellow boy darted off to find another entry point. By the time he was gone, the guard turned around with a pen and paper.

"Alright, so what's your nam… where'd he go?" the guard quirked to himself, realizing that the inkling was gone. The guard personally found it rude, considering how nice he was being.

"Just gotta find something to slip through…" Maize muttered to himself while crawling through bushes at the back of the studio. He wondered what all sorts of shows were made in there, considering the squid sisters were the only two broadcast on the big screen television. He only assumed the other shows got broadcasted to different network. He eventually found an open window that was on the second floor.

"Well… I guess I didn't bring this for nothing," Maize muttered, reaching for something on his back. He pulled his charger off his back which was named the Splatterscope, one of many types of the weaponry that inklings used for turf wars. The yellow inkling usually preferred chargers. He never was good at fighting up close. He aimed upward toward the window and holding the trigger, hearing the Splatterscope charge. He let go of the trigger, watching a honey colored yellow ink spray out in a straight line. It hit below the window and sprayed the entire wall below it.

"I knew I should have brought my ink tank," Maize said. He had only loaded his charger with enough ink for one shot. He doubted he even needed it for this visit, but he wanted to bring it to be safe. He put it on his back, and he stood in the puddle of yellow ink at the bottom of the building. He took in a breath before shrinking and changing into the shape of a small yellow squid with two long tentacles. Maize began to swim through the ink up the entire wall before he reached the open window and climbed on through.

"Gah!" Maize cringed in pain when he fell in the window. He had tripped over a chair and landed into a small stack of empty boxes. The yellow squid changed from his squid form back into his inkling form, pulling himself out of the floor, rubbing his chest sorely. This room seemed to be a storage room for backup equipment. He was happy that there wasn't anything in those boxes. He didn't need a huge debt to pay off for accidental damage of property.

"Thank goodness for negligent workers," Maize smiled, thankful for whoever left that window open, but felt bad for whoever would have to clean up that ink outside. He shook it off, heading toward the door to exit the storage room. He gazed to the stairwell at the left of this long hallway. He closed the door behind him before continuing toward there. He had to get downstairs, if he was right anyway about where this person he was meeting was. Otherwise, Maize would be exploring a lot of this building.

Maize had made his way to the first floor, seeing a few other doors around, but the one that drew his attention was a brightly colored door that had black and white on it. The plaque beside the door read 'Squid Sisters'. He opened the door and headed inside.

"Huh… it kind of looks creepy from this side," Maize admitted, seeing the news room from the inside. It was always different than the outside. The glass wall was near, giving a good view of the plaza from where he stood. The young inkling could see a light that was on at the nearby door which led to presumably the back room for preparing and makeup, as well as resting. He pushed the door in, making his way inside.

"Hey, sorry for being la-ahh!" Maize got pinned to the ground. A net trap had been dropped on top of him.

"Gotcha, you burgl- …Agent 3?! You're the burglar?!" he heard. He looked up, seeing a very old inkling with a bushy beard and a cane. He wore a blue hat on his head and somewhat tattered clothes, with multiple medals attached to his shirt.

"Hey! I'm not a burglar, Cap'n! You told me to come here as soon as I could!" Maize pounded the floor angrily. The old man was Captain Cuttlefish, a very old-aged inkling who participated in the great turf wars against the octolings ages ago. He referred to Maize as Agent 3 due to the matter when he had recruited him to help reclaim the zapfish that had been taken at one point. They had thankfully handled the matter safely.

"Oh… terribly sorry. My grandsquids told me someone was breaking in and stealing equipment from everywhere in the building, so I wanted to help," Cuttlefish apologized while his young friend wrestled with the net. The old squid helped him out the best he could. Once he stood up, the young boy picked up his glasses and adjusted them on his face.

"Ugh… don't worry about it, Cap'n. So what is it you needed from me?" Maize asked the main point, just thankful the old man had good intentions behind the net, even if it came off more inhumane. The yellow inkling was always happy to help and proudly dawn the name Agent 3, even if it was more secret heroism than anything.

"Actually, this is what someone else needs help with from you," Captain Cuttlefish corrected. Maize tilted his head confusedly, watching the captain slowly walk over to the nearby counter that had some small stools. There was a decent sized mirror on the counter. Maize saw a pink laptop there that was open and displaying a webpage.

"Special Squid Service?" Agent 3 read out the webpage. It was a public website that was meant for squids to send in private messages to request for help from the host of the domain. The inkling cast a concerned gaze to his captain.

"Right you are, squiddo! I set this little site up here so we can help people out. Y'know, since you or Agents 1 and 2 aren't getting much action lately," Captain Cuttlefish explained. Maize had to admit that he was impressed by the old man. Over a hundred years old, and he knew how to work the internet as well. Once he processed what he was told, it hit him however.

"Wait… you what?! I didn't agree to that!" Maize exclaimed. He doubted even the squid sisters knew about their grandfather's antics. The yellow squid kid didn't mind helping other inklings with their problems, but this sounded senseless, since the octolings had not attempted anything in quite some time.

"I knew you'd be understanding enough to help others in times like these," Captain Cuttlefish smiled. Maize couldn't tell if this old squid was delusional half the time or put on a really good act with faking his mental state. They heard a light bubble popping noise from the computer, indicating a new message.

"There's a request now. You want to view it?" the older inkling offered. Maize rubbed his head, sorely giving up on arguing. He figured it would be better to help others out anyway to get his mind off how bad today had went. He had lost next to all his turf wars and had dropped from a B+ rank to a C+, which was quite a demoralizing feeling.

"Hello! My names Auburn, and I live over at the apartments on BellyLeech Avenue. I need help finding my brother. He left a week ago and never came back after we had a fight. I live in Unit 203," Maize read the message carefully. He wondered how others even found out about this website, but assumed that Cuttlefish had somehow advertised it secretly.

"Well… I guess I'll go see what I can do," Maize reluctantly muttered. That apartment complex was not too far away from here.

"You'll help a lot in their times of need, Agent 3… and don't worry. When I see the grandsquids, I'll bring'em up to speed," Captain Cuttlefish stated, the yellow inkling doing his best to ignore making a comment about how the old man did not have any hesitation, when it came to bugging him this late at night. Maize sighed before heading off, remembering to sneak out the same way he came in, or else security would beat him up. He hoped he would be able to aid others in need, even if it wasn't as secretive as defeating the octolings. An agent's work was never done, but the wait can sometimes be a longer pain.


	2. Lost

Maize had walked the whole distance to Bellyleech Avenue. It only took him an hour to get to there. This area was mostly an apartment block for housing. A lot of inklings lived in the general area. He approached the first apartment building that was only three floors high in size. The yellow inkling had walked up to the second floor, seeing the hallways. He hoped this auburn person wouldn't mind him coming at this late hour.

"Door 203… well, here we go," Maize muttered, seeing the door before him. He knocked a few times. The young inkling was unsure how he would be of use here, though. He heard the sound of the door unlocking and saw it open partway.

"Who are you...?" he heard a light voice ask. The darkness made it hard to see the person herself, but he only could make out her eye color, which was a light shade of pink.

"Maize is the name. I got your message about your brother," Maize introduced himself. This seemed to get her to open the door. He assumed this person was Auburn, surveying her darkish red tentacles for hair that was long and reached her knees in length. She was wearing a yellow shirt that had a white stripe pattern running along it vertically.

"I'm Auburn. Please come inside," the red inkling welcomed him inside. Maize stepped into the home. The apartment looked pretty clean and neat. There was a very long couch that looked like it could seat eight people at once. It reached a corner and turned with a coffee table in front of it. A flat screen television stationed across from that which held a few game consoles underneath it.

"Wow… you have a nice place," Maize commented, but the atmosphere came off more depressing. He could safely assume why. He took a seat on the couch, Auburn sitting nearby.

"Thank you," she nodded. It appeared he would have to be the one to get this conversation going.

"So what happened to your brother?" Maize requested while pulling out his phone, glad he had an audio recording application. He turned it on, wanting to record this conversation in case there was anything important he needed to remember later. The yellow inkling was trying to handle this professionally.

"Well… It's like I said in the message. We had a fight a week ago and he stormed out the door. I've never saw him since," Auburn explained, repeating the same information in the request, but she looked almost ready to break down in tears.

"What did you fight about?" Maize chimed in. He hated pressuring someone like this. It made him feel like a police officer cross examining a possible criminal. Captain Cuttlefish was not kidding when he said that squids needed help.

"I-it was… a stupid subject. Just me and Cobalt were not agreeing on what to vote for this splatfest, and be-before I knew it, we were both shouting," Auburn stated. She paused for a moment. Maize raised one of his eyebrows, confused. The next splatfest was soon, but the theme was cars versus planes, from what he could recall. The yellow inkling decided not to try and force her to tell the truth.

"Don't go blaming yourself. Do you have any idea where he would have gone?" he requested, wanting to know of any hangouts that she had not investigated herself. He doubted she would spend a week sitting around crying instead of searching for her brother.

"I checked m-most of his places out. All of his friends haven't seen him, and he hasn't participated in a turf war lately either. The only place I couldn't look into is some club in the back part of Mudskipper Street," Auburn explained. Maize knew of that place. Inklings needed a special membership to get inside, but it sure felt like no one knew how to obtain said membership. So many tales and rumors of that club existed, to the point no one knew what to believe. The yellow tentacle haired boy stood up.

"I'll go see what I can trudge up. I know someone who might be able to help," Maize claimed. He knew just the person who could help get into this special club, but as he was heading toward the door, he heard sniffling.

"I… I don't know what I'll do without him if anything's happened. I would have to go back to our old home. I can't face our parents…" Auburn exclaimed through her choked sobs. Maize switched off his audio recording and pocketed his phone.

"I will find him for you. I promise," the yellow inkling swore to her. Auburn wiped her eyes, thankful to him for doing all this for her. With the interview over, Maize made his way out of the apartment. He needed to go visit this special friend of his if he wanted to get into the club. He hated knowing that he had to walk all the way back to Inkopolis Plaza. At times like this, the young inkling really wished he had a better way to get around, at least some form of transport. The squid hurried off to get back to the plaza.

After another hour long rush, and after having burnt up most of his energy, the young inkling reached the plaza, which was still as active as before. Everyone here was enjoying the night. Maize was making a note to try and join in on the fun tomorrow. He approached a small alleyway that was right beside a café. He walked into the alley that led to a dead end that was all but empty.

"Ya back, mate. Here to get your gear rerolled?" he heard, looking over to a corner. Maize saw a partial friend of his. He was a slightly older man who had black and purple spikes covering his head and part of his face. He was wearing a very colorful poncho as well. Surrounding him for the most part were a lot of small adorable creatures in shells that had tall beady eyes.

"Sorry, Spyke, but maybe my shoes later," Maize apologized. This was Spyke, a sea urchin, a more than shady worker around the plaza. He would order gear that were replicas of clothing other squids were wearing if requested, or change the bonuses the specific gear gave. Everything he did was quite costly, too. Surrounding him were super sea snails, a somewhat rare creature, and he took care of all of them.

"So wot are you here for then?" Spyke requested him to cut to the chase. Maize visited the sea urchin quite a bit mostly for chatter, but the other shop keepers got along fine with the shady dealer.

"You know that club on Mudskipper Street? I need you to get me proof of membership," Maize explained what he required, hoping the sea urchin could be of some help. Spyke had a slight grin in his face.

"You want in there? Wif all the turf wars you've lost lately, ya sure you're in your right mind?" Spyke asked, aware of the horrid streak of luck that also had cost him a lot of his rank. The yellow inkling chuckled lightly, appreciating the concern.

"Turf wars are fun. Running around, spraying ink, seeing all those people's faces brighten up, and hearing them laughing in joy… all of which are able to make any day brighter, and all the squids I meet are great. If I let just a single letter bother me, I don't deserve to be allowed on the turf," Maize responded. Again, he was happy to just have fun that it didn't matter if he won or lost, he could earn his rank back with enough effort. The shady urchin patted the shell of one of the super sea snails.

"I can respect that, I 'spose," Spyke nodded, leaning back a little and poking one of his own spiky hairs. The yellow teen felt silly at his own practical speech.

"Sorry mate, but havin' a nice moral code doesn't mean I'll give ya a discount," the sea urchin added. Maize gained a grin on his face.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Spyke," Maize dug around in his pockets before he pulled out a small card that was gold in color. On it was a picture of himself and a serial bar. When turned sideways, there revealed a huge number of digits along it. The amount of money on it was 60,573 coins, the currency of inklings. They made money from jobs and turf wars. These cards were how they carried the coins. He handed the card over to Spyke.

"Alright, mate. Just come back in 24 hours and you'll be set," Spyke declared. It wouldn't take long for this to be done in one day, as this was his usual length. But sadly, the young inkling did not think waiting would be good right now.

"Er… can you actually rush it to get it done really soon? I'm trying to find someone and that club is the only lead I have," Maize asked. Spyke looked at him. The inkling was aware of how ridiculous of a request this was. Putting all other orders aside from dozens of other squids for his own needs was somewhat selfish.

"Mate, you really have lost ya mind lately. Give me a reason why I should rush this," Spyke retorted. Helping someone he did not know remotely wasn't much of a motivator. Maize tilted his head back, closing his eyes. He was going to hate himself later for what he was about to say.

"I'll pay you 60,000 coins to get this done quick," Maize offered nearly all of the coins he had saved on the card. The sea urchin's attention was garnered quite well. He stood up, looking at his super sea snails.

"It looks like we'll be dining nicely tonight. Give me ten minutes," Spyke said. That surprised his young friend.

"Wa-wait! It only takes you that long to get one of those memberships?!" Maize irritatingly asked. Spyke laughed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small golden medal that had a sand dollar pattern imprinted on it. Apparently, the shady merchant was a member of this club.

"It's easier to duplicate when I don't need to work from scratch," Spyke smirked. The yellow squid buried his face into his hands, just stepping out of the alleyway to let the sea urchin do his work. He waited, patient but irritated.

Those ten minutes flew by very fast. Before he knew it, he heard something rattling along on the ground. Maize felt something tugging on his pants leg. He looked down, seeing two of the super sea snails. One had been using its mouth to get his attention, while the other was carrying his coin card in its mouth that was balancing the duplicate club membership coin.

"Thanks, little guys," Maize smiled, picking them both up. The proof of membership looked perfectly identical to Spyke's, and he was happy to have it now, but he then saw his coin card. There was only 573 coins left on it. The yellow inkling felt greatly disheartened, seeing how poor he now was. He hoped this club would be worth the effort and cash.

"Tell Spyke thanks for the help," Maize said. The super sea snails made some cute noise before crawling off back toward the alleyway. Once gone, he pocketed his personal possessions before making his way off. Now all he had to do was make another long walk, hoping whatever in this special club better be worth the money, so he could come back to it again if he ever needed to.

"Maybe the cap'n will pay me back?" Maize sighed. This was going to be a long night. The young inkling headed back out onto the streets, leaving Inkopolis Plaza to begin his walk to Mudskipper Street hoping, he could help Auburn and find her brother Cobalt there. Otherwise, he was following a wild fish chase to a dead end, which meant a first mission gone tragically wrong. Agent 3 already felt quite stressed out from imagining it.


	3. Found

After another long walk, Maize was tired, ready to fall asleep on anything soft he could lay eyes on. The jellyfish inhabitants of Inkopolis did not help, either. He had finally made it all the way to Mudskipper Street. This area didn't seem like anything, nothing noteworthy that made it stick out. He saw one of the side entrances.

"Please let the dangerous rumours be wrong," Maize mentally hoped. He had heard so many scary tales about this club that was hard to get into. The stories ranged from dangerous knife juggling and heavy gambling. Others said that this was a luxurious secret restaurant that only the freshest of people had access to. The young inkling wondered if the squid sisters had any knowledge of this place, but he didn't want to bother them with a phone call at this late hour.

Maize had walked to the back of the building. The yellow tentacle haired boy could see a good few dumpsters stationed here, but the main draw was right before him; the only back door to any of the buildings, and it looked heavy and made of metal.

"Well… I guess the worst thing that can happen is that I lose my last 500 coins," he joked to himself, but it did not help cheer himself up. He knocked on the door a couple of times and waited. The inkling saw a slit in the door open, unveiling a pair of all too scary eyes.

"Proof of membership," a deep voice requested. Maize rummaged through his pockets, pulling out the golden trinket that had a sand dollar imprinted on it. He presenting it to the pair of eyes. The slit in the door shut, and he heard a creak. The door was now open. Standing before the young inkling was another squid who looked his age, holding a voice changer. It was just a door guard doing his job intimidating anyone who came, in case anyone was up to any mischief.

"Welcome to Sand Heights. Enjoy your stay," the inkling happily said before closing the door behind the two of them. Maize was a little in awe, seeing this place and the many other inklings around here. There were two floors to this club. The people were relaxing here or doing their own thing.

"Hey, uh… can you tell me if there's a squid here named Cobalt?" Maize asked the door guard. The other inkling scratched his head, pointing to a long counter where some inklings were enjoying food.

"The chef should know. He knows everyone here," the guard stated before holding his hand out.

"Also, I'm going to need your weapon. We can't have any splatting inside. Things could get real messy if it starts," the door guard added. Maize groaned in reply. He hated giving his splatterscope to anyone, but he had to. He removed it from his back, reluctantly handing it over. The guard went over to safely stash it away. The yellow squid made his way over to the counter. Everyone here seemed really friendly.

"Hey there, squidster. What are you hungry for?" the worker behind the counter asked. He appeared to be a slightly older inkling, who was wearing an apron and standing in front of a refrigerator, getting a couple of sodas out for others.

"Sorry, but I'm not hungry… well, actually if you can make a sandwich to go, I'd be thankful, but I'm looking for someone named Cobalt," Maize inquired, hoping this chef would be able to give him some information where this missing inkling was. The chef was getting out the ingredients to make the sandwich, twirling his knife around.

"Cobalt? Yeah, he's here. He's been staying upstairs for a while in Room 3. Why'd you ask? Is he in trouble?" the chef wanted to know if they had been housing a fugitive. Hearing that Auburn's brother was here felt like an immense relief on the yellow squid's mind.

"No, but save my sandwich for me. I'll be leaving soon," Maize declared before running off toward the stairwell, bumping and crashing through other inklings before climbing upstairs. The wooden steps creaked and rattled under his quick feet. The teenage inkling was surprised by how many squids were here, considering how hard it was to get a membership, or at least it was for him to. He still hoped that Captain Cuttlefish would pay him back handsomely for this.

Upstairs was a lot less active than downstairs. The inklings around here were playing games on their electronics or trying to rest up. This club seemed alright, but it didn't seem like anything special thus far. Finally, the yellow inkling made it to Room 3.

"Hey! Cobalt, are you in?" Maize knocked on the door while calling to the other inkling's name. He felt like he was about to fall asleep. He had lost so much energy running back and forth repeatedly, but he was beginning to notice other squids' eyes watching him. He tried to be subtle, but something did not feel right. The yellow inkling saw the door open. Standing before him was an inkling with light pink eyes and light blue tentacles for hair that were quite short in length, and a blank black shirt worn on his body.

"Who're you?" the inkling responded. It was safe to assume that he was indeed Cobalt.

"I'm Maize. Mind if I step inside?" Maize introduced himself. Cobalt tapped his foot for a second. The blue squid stepped aside, the yellow inkling wanting to get away from the not so subtle eyes that were on them.

"So what brings you to my humbly horrible abode, Maize?" Cobalt asked. The room looked tiny. The only thing decent in size was the bed that appeared to not have been tidied up in a long time.

"Auburn asked me to find you. I don't know if you've noticed, but you've been missing for about a week," Maize explained. Cobalt looked slightly amused hearing that, rubbing his jaw.

"I didn't think Aubby would get someone else to hunt me down. Sorry, but I can't go," Cobalt shook his head, clearly aware of his own status as a missing squid. He was hiding something. However, Maize did not come all the way here to leave empty handed. It was time to start pressuring the conversation.

"And why can't you go?" he asked. The blue squid sighed, starting to sound gradually more annoyed.

"Because I don't want to. Why should I go back to my home just to fight?" Cobalt retorted. There was that hesitation again now. Maize knew that the two siblings were lying to him. Agent 3 had the best angle to approach this set in his head. Captain Cuttlefish had taught him the art of interrogation, but that was for octolings they captured if they ever had to. Thankfully that never occurred.

"Sorry, but I don't believe you'd live here for a week over a fight about a splatfest… at least not of your own will. You have the worst room of this club, and every inkling around watches your door carefully," Maize began his elaboration, trying to logically get through this, hoping it would not end with security tossing him out. He actually was starting to like this club a little. Being called a liar seemed to strike a nerve in the other inkling.

"Why should I tell you anything? You're just some random squid with your head out of the turf," Cobalt requested, uninterested in continuing the conversation. He was talking to someone who was nearly a complete stranger to him, after all.

"I don't know a thing about you, you got that right. But I've done a lot to come find you. I spent four hours walking between places and spent 60,000 coins to just get a membership here. The least you can do is offer me the truth so I can help you and your sister," Maize irritatingly retorted. He had done so much just to help these two and he barely knew them. It felt great to be helpful, but the yellow inkling was not of much use if he got kept in the dark. The truth needed to be revealed. The blue inkling was shocked enough by this, and he went silent for a moment.

"Wow… you did all this for us? Just… who are you?" Cobalt said, astonished. Someone who barely knew them did so much for them. The yellow tentacle haired boy had already told him his name, but did not see any harm in repeating himself.

"I'm Maize, agent for Special Squid Services. We do everything we can to help out whoever we can!" Maize proudly exclaimed, giving a thumbs up. He made up the tagline on the spot, but it sounded fitting. Cobalt swore that this line alone sounded like a military group, but he nodded, giving the first smile the yellow inkling had seen from him.

"Alright, well… I didn't leave because we argued about splatfest. We argued because of our uncle. He left us a large amount of coins for us in his will, and Auburn wanted to donate it all to charity. But I wanted to give it to our aunt so she could keep living on her own," Cobalt started off by telling the truth behind what had caused the argument. It was not what Maize expected.

"After I went out, I wanted to go clear my head, so I went to have a turf battle. We wound up on Camp Triggerfish. The owner of this club claimed she had evidence that I cheated the win. I had to work here if I didn't want to get reported to officials," Cobalt described what had happened to him, claiming that he was set up, but was too afraid of being reported to take that risk. Maize felt a cold chill run down his spine at the mere mention of officials. They were rarely seen, but they did not take any cheating or shady antics lightly in turf wars. The judge of turf wars recorded everything from the color of each team's paints to the names of everyone on both teams, and to whoever were the victors. The yellow inkling had met the officials once before. He never wanted to again after that encounter.

"Why would the owner need a worker, though? Every squid here looks like they'd volunteer to become members," Maize quirked. The light blue squid shook his head. He had no idea.

"She's in the basement. I did get a copy of that match from Judd, but I have no idea what to do with it," Cobalt claimed, pulling out a piece of paper and turning it over to the yellow inkling. He took it, looking it over the match results. Cobalt's team were using pink for their team color, and the enemy were using green. There was a little too much information here. Maize pocketed it, hoping he could use this sooner or later.

"You relax. I'll make sure things are fine, but I want you to promise me something," Maize said. Cobalt raised an eyebrow.

"What?" the blue inkling chirped.

"I want you to find some way to deal with this inheritance problem, without fighting. Sound good?" the yellow inkling requested, while adjusting his glasses. Cobalt nodded happily.

"You got it! …I don't like hurting Auburn, and I need to get out of here to make it up to her," the light blue squid agreed happily, hearing a chuckled from his hero in this dark hour.

"Right… well pack your things. Next time you see me, you'll be out of here," Maize reassured before he left the room. He began to mentally ponder what had been going on with himself. He had been acting more confident and brave for others ever since Captain Cuttlefish had set up that website. He wondered if this really was because of the feeling of helping others. Right now, Maize had to find some way to get Cobalt his freedom to reunite him with his sister.


	4. Mission complete

**Authors Note: Hi all, I hope you're enjoying this fic. I'm trying to update it daily, let me know what you think in the reviews. Have a good day, and take care!**

Maize had headed downstairs to the basement of the club. It was a pain to him, for certain. He had just vowed to save someone from blackmail. Now he just had to figure out a way to do that himself. He arrived to the basement, where he could see that this was used heavily for storage. There were stacks of labelled crates. No two crates appeared to contain the same items.

"Please let this boss be friendly…" Maize said to himself. He was wishing for a lot. This girl was a blackmailer, but he still could have hopes. He had wandered through an open door in the basement, until he found and entered a room that looked like a small office, where he saw a desk with two chairs in front of it that did not match remotely. Otherwise, this room was just as crate filled.

"Hey! Didn't your parents ever teach ya to knock?" he heard, looking to the left. Maize followed where the voice came from. A squid was standing on some of the crates, high enough to be near the ceiling. She was in a vibrantly bright red business suit, looking only slightly older than him. She had a long pink tentacle for her hair and her eyes were green in color. Maize presumed her to be the boss, but he was confused by the sight of her one tentacle strand.

"Um… no, not really," Maize answered, watching her jump down from the crates and land in front of him. She walked over to the other side of the desk and plopped down into a swivel chair.

"I can't tell if you're dim or painfully honest. Guess there's no harm to be had in either. Name's Rose. I'm the manager of this establishment," Rose introduced herself. Maize was getting an odd vibe from her. He really did not feel safe, but he couldn't let his nerves get the best of him.

"I'm Maize, a new member. I wanted to talk to you about cobalt," the yellow tentacle haired boy stated. The boss looked annoyed as she laid her head on her desk, her expression changing from irritated to bored pretty quickly.

"What about him? He's practically a family member here," Rose responded. Maize could tell that the part about feeling like he was family was a lie, unless she was really messed up in the head, but so far the teenage inkling had not gotten that far in the conversation to be able to decide yet.

"I heard about his little 'cheating' incident and wanted to get some info on it," Maize lied, acting like he was an investigator. Rose gained a grin, showing her sharp teeth. The yellow inkling quickly felt her tentacle smack his face.

"I'unno. I can't tell just anyone that information. What would you give me?" Rose asked. Maize was struggling to get her tentacle to let go. It was stuck to his face and uncomfortably forcing his glasses against his skin. Finally the yellow squid got the tentacle off his face with a loud pop. He only had an immediate thought come to mind.

"…I'll give up my membership if you talk," Maize offered, reaching into his pocket and presenting the golden trinket that had a sand dollar imprinted onto it. The pink inkling took it from him, viewing the medal. They weren't cheap to make, after all.

"Well, I guess you're a sweet squid and all, and you caught me in a good mood… so I'll do it," Rose agreed, pocketing the proof of membership. Maize swore that he could feel his coin card crying in his pocket. It was 60,000 coins straight down the drain for a one time access to this club.

"Thanks. Can you tell me how cobalt cheated?" the yellow teenager requested for her to begin. She looked pretty content, leaning back into that swivel chair that looked like it was ready to fall apart at any second.

"Well, I was fighting him, ya see, and me and my team noticed that he had been using a lot more ink without swimming in it to refill for most of the match. After I did some searching after the round, I found this," Rose explained. Maize had a bad feeling about whatever it was that she was looking for. He saw her vanish from her chair for a moment while getting under the desk, seeing it rattle. This really was a very messy office, Maize thought to himself.

"There we are!" she reappeared from beneath the desk, putting something on the desk. Maize recognized it easily. It was an ink tank that filled up when the inklings changed into squids and swam in the matching ink color. They would automatically refill, of course. Some weapons used more ink than others. The ink tank had a little bit left in it, and the color inside it was green. Already, Agent 3 found an oddity in the claim.

"So you have no proof he cheated?" Maize grinned, though that confidence was hard to keep up. It felt like he was talking to a mob boss, or just a mentally unstable inkling. He still was trying to decide which it was.

"This is proof! A near empty ink tank found in the same area after the turf war," Rose retorted. Maize put two fingers on the strong cylinder. He tipped it over watching it fall onto its side. The remaining the green ink sloshed around.

"Unless he was helping you paint the turf, then it isn't. His team used pink that round, according to Judd," Maize pointed out the contradiction. Things seemed to go silent from there. The suited inkling stood up from the desk, going behind herself to one of the many crates, ripping the lid off.

"Look, I don't know why you did all this, but Cobalt has to go. He has his own life to deal with. Let him go, and I won't say a word about what you did," Maize spoke while fixing his glasses, presuming that the pink inkling had set this all up in some way. He had no idea why this club did not appear to need any workers, yet he could care less. He proved Cobalt's innocence with ease with just the smallest contradiction.

"Oh no, I'll make sure this gets fixed. All I have to do is clean the container, then refill it with the right ink color," Rose hummed while being half inside the crate. She was short in size, so it was hard for her to get anything out of these big boxes. Agent 3 did not like the sound of that.

"Wa-wait! You're not talking about making fake evidence? The turf officials will be more angered about this than an actual cheater," Maize claimed. He wondered why she cared so much about losing one regular turf war. Rose pulled a full ink tank out of the crate and slumped it onto her back, and she pulled out a small orange and white weapon, which Maize knew as the N-Zap '89.

"That's why I'm going to make sure no one knows I made it. No one will believe you were here, after I splat you!" Rose laughed, turning around and aiming the weapon right at him. Maize gasped, seeing her open fire. Pink splotches of paint went flying at him like speeding bullets. Maize let his reflexes take over. He kicked the desk and knocked his chair over with himself in it, falling flat on his back groaning in pain. The ink went flying over him and splattered all over the wall.

"You're insane!" Maize shouted. He immediately got up and made a run for it. Rose continued shooting, but he was able to outrun the ink. Maize made his way out of the room, turning around and slamming the door shut. He had no way to lock it from the outside, so he yanked one of the smaller crates out from a nearby pile, watching it collapse and block the door. He continued his escape from her fury. He couldn't be splatted right now. When another type of ink that did not match the inkling, or when the enemy team of an inkling hit them enough times, they inevitably explode into that color of ink. Yet they would be fine and reappear at the closest medical facility to wherever they were splatted at, or in a turf war, they would reappear at their starting point.

When Maize got upstairs, he returned to the main area of the club. Everyone looked unchanged, but the young squid could hear the sound of boxes being bashed and breaking. For a short inkling Rose sure had great strength when angry.

"Sorry! Sorry, sorry!" Maize apologized profusely as he rushed by the front door guard, heading toward the area where his weapon had been stashed away.

"Hey! If you wanted your weapon, you just had to ask," the guard huffed, finding the behavior quite rude. No one was patient enough to just wait. Maize found a pile of various weapons. It was like a treasure horde. He could even see some ink tanks as well in their own pile. Some inklings carried their tanks around with them in case.

"My luck hasn't let me down yet," Maize grinned, grabbing the first ink tank he could and tossing it over his shoulder. Even if it wasn't his color, it was better than battling empty-handed. He began hooking the tank up to his charger, just when he heard that all too familiar voice.

"Where is that yellow squid!?" Rose roared, finally having gotten out from the basement. There were quite a few yellow inklings in the club tonight, but none of them were the ones she was looking for.

"Here goes," Maize took in a deep breath, finally emerging from his hiding spot. He squeezed the trigger of the splatterscope and began to charge it. He aimed and fired, watching a straight strong burst of orange ink spray across the room, coating some of the tables. Rose moved out of the way, but her left hand got grazed by the orange ink. It stung like a bee on contact, but Rose retaliated, opening fire, spraying pink ink everywhere.

"Uh oh!" Maize ducked under one of the tables that club members were hanging out around. Rose had splatted at least four others by the time she let up on the trigger. The room had giant splashes of pink ink covering it. Agent 3 got up from his hiding spot and ran to the counter, Rose firing after him. He got hit in the side of his face as he dove over the counter and took cover.

"Oh hey. You want that sandwich now?" Maize heard, looking over to see that friendly chef he met a short while ago. They watched the counter get covered in the bright pink goo, as well as a few of the patrons. Screams rung out as people were panicking at the start of a fight inside. Maize felt horrible to let such a scuffle happen, and it did nothing to help his fear. He did not want to splat random inklings on accident. He paused, thinking of a new ideas.

"Hey...! Can I see that knife?" Maize requested the chef's favorite culinary tool, that was resting underneath the counter on one of the small shelves.

"Uh… I-I guess," the chef gave him permission. Maize quickly grabbed the knife and stabbed it into the wood floor. Tugging hard, he ripped out the entire piece of the floor. The nails were thankfully loose. No one had attempted to repair this club at all since it had been around for a long time.

"Come on out!" Rose demanded. The chef looked afraid of the menacing tone of the manager. Maize had to act fast. It was time to put his plan into action. He fired a fully charged splatterscope shot into the area underneath the floorboards. He quickly changed into a small yellow squid before crawling underneath. Rose climbed up on the counter, aiming into the area the chef was hiding in.

"Bo-boss, you're really scaring me and our club!" the chef exclaimed. The only response he got was a splatter shot in the face by a pink ink ball that knocked him onto the floor. Suddenly the floor behind Rose began to crack open and rip apart. Maize appeared, his finger squeezing the trigger of his splatterscope.

"Knock it off!" Maize demanded before he let go, the splatterscope firing a nearly fully charged blast. Rose had just turned around. She got hit in the chest by the orange burst of ink, which was strong enough to knock her off her feet. The pink inkling was sent sliding across the counter and falling off onto some of the stools, breaking a few as she landed.

Rose did not have a chance to react or move before Maize had come over and stomped a foot on her weapon, keeping his splatterscope aimed on her.

"Alright… go ahead. Splat me already," Rose gave up. She was defeated. Another good shot and she was done for, and with nothing to stand in the yellow inkling's way. Maize shook his head.

"I'm not the type to hurt squids without reason… even if you tried to splat me, I'm not going to do it to you," the yellow inkling stated. He did not hesitate on the other hand to kick her ink tank, shattering it and sending the pink ink oozing onto the floor. Now her weapon was worthless.

"But… but why? Are you really that dim?" Rose chuckled, finding it hard to believe he wouldn't hurt her. She wondered why he refused to.

"In a way. It's my duty to help out as many squids as I can, when I can," Maize declared. The room was beginning to calm down. Rose could only stare in silence, feeling ashamed. Cobalt was standing at the stairwell, having come from upstairs upon hearing the noise. Maize dropped the orange ink tank off his back, disconnecting it from his splatterscope before he put it on his back.

"Cobalt, are you ready to get out of here?" Maize questioned while approaching the exit. Cobalt ran up to him in seconds.

"You know it! Let's roll" Cobalt insisted they get out of here now. So the two of them forced the exit open and made their way out. As soon as Maize knew it, it was a mission accomplished. He had found Auburn's brother and saved him from the blackmailing effort, having kept true to his word. For a first mission, it was difficult for him and was a true test of sacrifice, losing his membership and nearly every one of his coins that had paid for said membership. All Maize could do was escort Cobalt home, and hope that Captain Cuttlefish would be proud of him.


	5. Squid Sisters

Maize had walked the dark streets of Inkopolis for quite a while, Cobalt alongside him. There was an awkward silence between the two. Maize was trying to enjoy the peace now that he had it, but it was most likely two in the morning. The two were beginning to arrive back to the apartment complex.

"I gotta say, you're really no ordinary squid," Cobalt broke the silence, complimenting the one who had saved him. The yellow inkling cast an odd look to him as they were entering to the stairwell to get to the correct floor.

"What do you mean?" Maize questioned, not sure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment. The blue squid rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"I mean, you were all calm in there, when you figured out everything that was going on and you got me outta trouble. I've never seen any squid like you doing any of this, and that's not counting all you did for me and my sis," Cobalt explained. He was amazed by Agent 3 going toward any situation and being able to keep a level head. Maize felt embarrassed, by the compliments but he did not need an ego rubbing.

"Heh… thanks, but I'm just a really lucky idiot who doesn't think first before acting. I know what it's like to not have anyone there to help. I'm going to try and help every squid I can," Maize insisted. Cobalt could tell that there was some baggage behind that claim, hearing his tone becoming gradually more saddened. They soon arrived to the blue squid's apartment.

"You have no idea how cheesy you sound, y'know that?" Cobalt joked. Maize smirked, not able to disagree with that comment. He opened the apartment door, the yellow inkling following him inside. The door closed behind them. Most of the lights were still out, but then one light turned on from the next room.

"Who's there…?! Cobalt!" Auburn gasped upon seeing her sibling. The light blue squid felt nothing but great excitement, watching her run up and tackle him, almost knocking him down to the floor. He chuckled, feeling her tentacle hair wrapping around him.

"I was afraid I'd never see you again…" Cobalt returned her embrace. Maize was happy to see the scene before him. All his effort had paid off, and the siblings were reunited. The yellow inkling turned around, ready to head out the door, wanting to let those two enjoy their reunion.

"Wa-wait, Maize!" he heard, looking over his shoulder to see Auburn behind him, just after letting go of her brother. She reached toward one of her ears, grabbing her left earring and removing the piercing, presenting it to him.

"What's this for?" Maize quirked while she put that into his hand. The earring was golden and in the shape of a crescent moon, with a small blue gem in the centre of it.

"It was our uncle's. He left me two earrings, and I wanted you to have this one," Auburn claimed. The yellow squid was not a big fan of jewellery, yet he felt greatly honoured to be trusted with such a valuable item as a reward for helping them out.

"Thank you auburn. Don't forget our promise, Cobalt," Maize grinned, his three sharp teeth showing. Cobalt nodded, giving a thumbs up.

"I'd let myself be splatted a hundred times before I ever thought of breaking that promise!" Cobalt declared. That was just what Maize wanted to hear. He thus left the apartment, the door slowly closing behind him. Cobalt and Auburn had a lot to discuss. Maize now just had to get home so he could get some rest.

Around three in the morning, Maize finally arrived to his own home. For a walk, it felt like it took forever. He lived in a small remote home that was only half an hour away from the main plaza. When the young squid entered through the door, he closed it behind him, immediately falling backwards in exhaustion, collapsing against the wooden frame. He was not able to see any of his living room in the darkness. Maize let his splatterscope slide off his shoulder and clatter onto the floor. He looked at the earring in his hand.

"I'll put you up somewhere safe," Maize spoke to the empty darkness, standing up. He saw this earring as a trophy for a mission complete, a piece that did not just represent a reward and payment, but as a reminder to the lives he helped that were in a rough spot. The young inkling set his phone on a nearby counter. He had already sent a text message to Captain Cuttlefish during his walk home, which read, "Mission's done." He continued off down the hall to get to his room to find somewhere to stash the earring away safely and get some well-earned sleep.

The night went by just as slowly as it had started. The sky had begun filling with dark clouds overtime, the weather itself looking not so merciful today. Maize had fallen asleep on his bed, he did not even get under the blankets, his head lying on the pillow and his glasses resting on the nightstand. Though around nine in the morning, two certain squids stood outside his door.

"Do you really know how to pick a lock?" one voice spoke as the doorknob rattled, the sound of a frustrating sigh following briefly after.

"Unless you have any better ideas on how to get inside without breaking a window?" the other voice retorted.

"The spare key under the mat?" the first voice suggested. The two were clearly regulars who had been to Maize's home before a number of times. The door unlocked as two figures made their way inside. The inside of the yellow inkling's home looked alright. The living room had a small couch and a rocking chair. The television was right in front of it with a game console beside it. The two intruders seemed concerned though upon seeing the splatterscope left on the floor.

"Go see if he's alright," the other voice ordered, irritating the first one who reluctantly did it, heading into the back room. Maize was still slumbering away on his bed, though as he slept, he suddenly felt something on his back that was lightly shaking him. He began to stir from his slumber.

"Ugh… another hour, please," Maize muttered, reburying his face into his pillow. This seemed to only annoy the intruder. Suddenly the yellow squid got yanked out of his bed and pulled into the floor with a thud. He groaned, looking up to see who had broken into his home.

"Good morning!" he heard. Standing over him was a girl with big black tentacles that had a pink tinge that was done up into a bow. She was wearing a sleeveless bright pink shirt with a white trim and a matching beanie on her head with a star on the side of it.

"Callie? You broke into my house again?" Maize said, quite straight faced about it. She was Callie, one of the two famous Squid Sisters and the granddaughter to Captain Cuttlefish. The young squid had met the real her shortly after the great zapfish had disappeared. When the captain recruited Maize to help Agents 1 and 2, it took a while for the Squid Sisters to reveal themselves to Maize, but they got along as good friends after everything settled down.

"You had us worried! We heard you trashed one of the most relaxing clubs in town last night!" Callie stated. It didn't help that he was not responding to any texts or phone calls, though he had just slept through them all. She helped her friend up off the floor, seeing him grab his glasses and put them back on.

"It's not like I went in there to trash it! The boss was crazy," Maize retorted in his own defence. The two began to make their way to the living room. The walls of the home were very bare and lacking any photos.

"Oh good, he's alive," a sarcastic voice joked. Maize looked over to the windows of the living room to see another female squid with milk white tentacles which were done up into a bow and on the right side of her head, with the ends wrapped around the other side slightly curling up at the ends. She was wearing a green vest on top of a white shirt, and had green jeans on that matched well. She was Marie, the other squid sister. Despite the two's title, the two were cousins. Marie came off slightly more lazy, all things considered, and like always, Maize was slightly jealous of their fashion. Marie was holding his splatterscope. She had a fondness for chargers.

"Glad to see you two have no problem breaking in," Maize joked. They did not even trust him enough to let him know the location of their own home, even if they all were good friends.

"We didn't break in. We had a key," she said, tossing him the spare key. Maize caught it, looking annoyed while pocketing it. He only kept putting it back outside under the welcome mat because he did not want to run the risk of them breaking one of his windows. He only thought it was fair, considering that he broke into the studio last night because of a stubborn guard.

"So did the cap'n tell you what he's done?" Maize asked, trying to do his best to fight off the tiredness. He would have to survive off the little sleep he could get.

"Yeah! Grandpa's always working on something! He even caught the burglar at our studio this morning!" Callie excitedly said. She appeared a lot more enthusiastic about this whole special squid service deal than Marie was. Maize was just surprised that the old inkling had actually gotten the job done.

"We also already received a review for the website," the white inkling chimed in. She rested the charger against the wall before pulling out her phone to look up the review. The Squid Sisters had the newest phone that only had come out a month ago, and it was, not surprisingly, expensive. She handed her phone over, Maize taking it. The Squid Sisters got close to both of his sides, wanting to read the review, too, like they had waited until now to read it altogether.

"Squelp?" Maize repeated the site name where the review had been posted, not caring much about it. He scrolled onto the text below, the three beginning to view what it said.

"I was in a lot of trouble with my brother missing. I had told the police, but they did nothing beyond add him to the missing squids list. I did my best to search, but when I left a message requesting help about it on the special squid services website, they responded within the hour and an agent was at our home. I never felt so safe before, and so reassured. Later that very night, when the agent came back, he had found and saved my brother. From what he told me, the agent had done so much for us. We will always be thankful to the special squid service and how professional they were."

Maize was in awe. It turned out to be Auburn who had written it.

"Wait… what, only four stars for a rating?" Maize suddenly noticed and groaned. He had done so much for them, and yet the review only rated the website four out of five star. It was a great rating but still it kind of felt like a punch to the stomach, wondering if there was something he would have done to get a perfect review score.

"It sounds like you impressed some squids last night. Agent 3," Marie added. Maize was beginning to feel embarrassed. He had only done his job, and the only thing he regret about that night that he had to cause a scene at the club. That and his coin card being in ruin, as well as his savings.

"I knew we should have slept at the studio last night!" Callie stated. Her cousin gave an annoyed expression.

"You wanted to get out as soon as we could. After all, you were afraid the burglar would come and burgle you," Marie reminded, embarrassing the black inkling with those words. Maize snickered a little, but one look out the window, and he noticed that it had suddenly began raining heavily.

"So what do you two want to do?" Maize asked, knowing they had a lot more time on their hands than they let on. When they wanted a day off, sometimes they would pre-record the Inkopolis news. It was really handy, but they always knew what the new turf war locations would be on the rotation before anyone else would.

"I want to do a mission!" Callie immediately stated with a smile. Somehow that was the very answer Agents 2 and 3 expected. Maize grabbed his cellphone off the counter, beginning to pull up the web browser before he went to the Special Squid Services website.

"Well… since I picked out the last request for help, I'll let you pick," Maize stated, handing the phone to Marie. He hoped the next mission would not require a lot of money, but either way, the Squid Sisters were rolling in coin cards that were all at their limit of storage.

"This one looks interesting," Agent 2 claimed, presenting the phone to the others. The one request she pulled up out of the bunch displayed on the screen.

"I have been having issues sleeping over the last two nights. I hear something creepy outside my window. Whenever I investigate into it, the thing making the noise is gone. My neighbours also hear it. My job is on the line, as my lack of sleep is hurting my performance. My address is 3911 Windfish Street."

A hunt to find the location of a creepy noise, Maize thought to himself. That sounded simple enough.

"I'm up for it," Maize agreed while pocketing his phone, assuming that Marie was putting her vote for that mission, too. Callie didn't like the thought of hunting something scary, but she knew she was already outvoted on the matter.

"Let's just hope it's a megaphone stuck in a drain pipe…" Callie muttered. That was oddly specific. Maize presumed she had experienced that when she was much younger. The yellow inkling went over to his closet and opened it up, pulling out two umbrellas. He gave the Squid Sisters one of his vibrant parasols and kept the other for himself. He grabbed his splatterscope and threw it over his shoulder.

"Do you really need that?" Marie questioned if there was a point of bringing a charger for just a simple mission like this. Maize picked up an ink canister filled with bright yellow ink, putting it on his back as well.

"For safety precautions. After last night, I'm not going anywhere without it," Maize stood firm. He had no plans on getting caught in a bad situation again. He learnt yesterday that anything anywhere can go insanely off the rails. The Squid Sisters didn't fight him on it.

The three stepped outside onto the front porch. There was a nice deck after the front door surrounded by a bug proof screen. Callie opened the umbrella they had and held it up, planning on sharing with her cousin. Maize had the smaller one for himself. The three of them left the porch and began to head out into the rainy morning to start the new mission.


	6. Noise Complaint

Maize, Callie and Marie had all been walking through the rain for a short time. The umbrellas they had were doing a decent job at keeping them dry. The Squid Sisters seemed happy to share their one umbrella. Those two always were perfect when they were on the same page, and were in great sync, but Agent 3 had seen the other agents whenever they had a disagreement; the two were an unpredictable force. The rain was not showing any signs of letting up anytime soon. It was pouring hard and running off their umbrellas. The trio were arriving to Windfish Street which looked like a relatively nice neighborhood, but was indeed a distance away from the main plaza.

"There's the place," Callie pointed her gloved hand. Maize saw address on the mailbox, which read the number 3911. This home looked like a single floor house, but the outside appeared to be in alright shape. They walked up the stone path to the front door, Maize knocking hard. It only took a moment before they saw the main door open, only leaving the screen door. Standing behind that was an older inkling who had purple tentacles for hair, which were tied back behind his head, and was wearing an orange coat. He looked very tired with bags under his eyes.

"Who are you lot?" the purple squid asked. Callie and Maize looked pretty happy, though Marie was a little bored. She was going to let her cousin and their friend handle the conversations.

"We're the agents from the Special Squid Service you requested. Can we come inside?" Maize requested humbly. He would prefer to get out of the cold rain, but was aware that being an armed inkling asking to get into others' homes probably came off as a bit suspicious.

"Oh, yes. Come on in," he opened the screen door for them. The three stepped inside, closing their umbrellas and resting them by the door. This home looked like it had not seen a real cleaning in weeks. Callie felt unsure of this place, seeing all the mess there was, from damaged furniture to occasional trash lying on the floor.

"I'm Mauve. I'm a construction manager for Hammerhead Bridge," Mauve introduced himself. The word Hammerhead Bridge rung all too familiar bells. That was a turf war location and a popular one at that. Marie and her cousin had been waiting forever for that bridge to be finished just so the commute would be a lot shorter, so they could get to work, but that bridge had been under construction for several years, especially from what the yellow inkling had heard. The Squid Sisters decided not to approach the topic and focus on the mission.

"Glad to meet you! I'm Maize, and this is…" Maize caught himself mid-sentence, not wanting to expose who was under the disguises his friends were wearing.

"Oh! Uh… I'm Caitlyn," the black tentacle haired inkling lied with the first name she could come up with in her mind, but she had nervous sweat running down her head.

"And I'm Mar… Mario," Marie coughed, feeling an awkward atmosphere being draped over her and her friends. She swore that she could hear them both snickering at the name she had went with for the disguise. Normally the two cousins never had to care about names with disguises.

"Mario? Now that's an honest worker's name," Mauve stated. Marie did not know whether to take that comment seriously or not, but was appreciative.

"So, Mauve… you said you were having problems with some strange noise. Do you think you can go into more detail about it?" Maize requested, ready to begin this mission the proper way and like how they all seemed to start, as was an interrogation with his phones audio recording feature on. The three wondered if this was going to be complex to solve or be a waste of time. The construction manager nodded, glad to do so, beginning to walk them through his home.

"It started the other night like I said in the message. Every night at random times, I hear some kind of noise. I don't know how to describe what it sounds like. I always go out to investigate, but there is never anything there," Mauve repeated the information. He presented the group a window in the hallway. The rain was pattering against the glass and running down. Maize came over and looked around. There was nothing much outside but a deep ditch full of junk. Behind that was a fence, and beyond that was the home of the neighbor who claimed to also hear the noise.

"You always go to try and find it?" Marie chimed in. It sounded torturous to not only have a sleep schedule damaged, but to be spending what little rest he could get, that he couldn't, going outside to try and investigate the source of the noise.

"Last night that noise came back five times in the span of two hours. One time I lost all control of my patience and just dove out the window to find it," Mauve admitted, coming off as embarrassed to be admitting his short mental breakdown. Agent 1 giggled, imagining it.

"Alright. Well don't worry, Mauve. I promise we'll deal with the noise for you," Maize swore. Callie always liked how the boy, whenever he made a promise, whether it be big or small, would do his best to see it completed. They had seen him fail a few promises, and it always wound up greatly depressing him. But they never understood why.

"Heh, thanks. Some of my co-workers are starting to call Hammerhead Bridge 'The Cursed Bridge', because it has brought nothing but bad luck so far," Mauve thanked them while exclaiming that the main reason Hammerhead Bridge took so long was because ever since they began work on it, there was nothing but one problem after another, all of which earned it the joke nickname of Cursed Bridge.

"…I don't know if I want to commute across a Cursed Bridge," Callie muttered. Marie put a hand on her back, trying to get her to calm down, not wanting to have her cousin terrified of a bridge every time they crossed it. Agent 3 turned to the others.

"Well now, it's our turn to investigate the noise. If we turn up nothing, we'll talk to the neighbor. Sound good?" Maize spoke the immediate plan that came to mind, while stopping the recording and pocketing his phone. His partners didn't have any objections on this, but they were aware that this was going to be a search in the rain, and they would just have to tolerate it.

"Thank you so much. If you need anything, just come back inside," Mauve said. He was really appreciative for this. He had tried everything, but no matter what, that noise kept waking him back up. He had taken medicine and tried sleeping in different locations. It was to the point that he was ready to clear out. That was, if he did not get fired first.

The three agents had regathered their umbrellas, including an extra one for Marie so that she and her cousin would not have to worry about sharing an umbrella and searching simultaneously. At least now their search capabilities were larger. The group had stepped outside the building and all made way through to the back part of the home.

"Do you think this mess is also because of his lack of sleep…?" Callie wondered aloud, seeing the huge pile of trash lying in the ditch that made a quite ominous stack.

"I'm leaning toward so lazy that he throws his trash out the window," Maize laughed, pointing to the window they had viewed this very ditch from. The Squid Sisters giggled over the joke as Maize went back to the task at hand.

"Right, Callie. You check around here since Mauve has been out here each time the noise happens. This place probably has been checked out really thoroughly. Me and Marie will go look on the other side of the fence," Maize described the plan. Callie was uncomfortable being alone, but nodded, agreeing to it. With that done, the group split up, Agents 2 and 3 heading off to get to the other side of that fence, hoping the neighbor wouldn't mind them investigating in their yard.

"You sure do a lot to try and make everyone happy," Marie commented from what she had seen so far. Ever since she met the yellow inkling, he had done nothing but nice things for them and other squids, not mentioning the great zapfish rescue he had a major hand in. He looked at her confusedly.

"Is that a bad thing?" Maize quirked, "We are the Special Squid Service for a reason. We have to…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm glad you are like this, though. It makes me feel better knowing there is someone else there to make Callie smile when she needs it," Marie hushed him and claimed so. Maize knew she loved her cousin, but the white inkling always had a worrying fear that one day she would just be gone, and would have done nothing but left Callie with all the pain to burden. Marie had talked about this on a few occasions with her friend.

"I've said it once, and I'll say it again Marie. I plan on making sure you and your entire family is strong and safe. I promise this," Maize swore. He wasn't a bodyguard or anything, but he knew that sometimes, just knowing another squid was there was all the reassurance one needed.

"You are way too cheesy. You know that?" Marie sarcastically joked, but clearly was thankful for his support in this matter, giving a smile to him.

"Am I really like that?" Maize sighed. That was the second time someone had called him cheesy today. He really wasn't sure how to interpret that, all things considered. The two got to the neighbor's yard. Everything looked normal. That was when they started hearing some creepy noise. It sounded like a wobbly whine of an echo that came off as quite eerie and surprisingly loud, which surprised them both.

"Alright! Look all throughout the yard," Maize ordered. Marie nodded, hurrying off to try and investigate the big yard with him. They had to cover quite a lot of ground to find out where the source of the noise was coming from. It was loud, but it sounded like it was coming from multiple directions.

Callie on the other hand was still in Mauve's backyard when she heard the noise begin that had almost made her drop her umbrella in fear. It did nothing but terrify her, but almost as fast as it came, it began to end. She looked at the pile of junk in the ditch, noticing that one of the pieces of it fell off randomly. She approached it, resting her umbrella down. She would have to tolerate the rain hitting her, if she were to use both hands.

"I hope the others find the noise before I do… oh my gosh!" Callie gasped when she finally got some of the junk moved aside. She had found something inside the trash she didn't want to find remotely. She reached into the pile of junk and pulled out something wrapped into a small blanket. Callie worked her way out of the ditch, leaving her umbrella behind. She had to get inside to get Mauve's help urgently. Whatever it was she found had gained her undivided attention.


	7. A squishie situation

Maize and Marie had spent the better part of thirty minutes looking in the neighbor's yard for the source of that noise. Even though it had only lasted a brief moment, they still did not want to go back to Mauve having gained nothing, not even the slightest clue what the cause of the noise was.

"Okay. I'm all for doing a thorough job… but I'm not doing this", Marie said. The two were near a storm drain and she was holding both umbrellas. Maize had the idea to go searching down in the storm drain, because it was empty and could easily echo from all over like they heard earlier.

"I'm not asking you to go down there with me. I just want you to pull me back up when I'm done searching," Maize repeated. The white inkling had the same facial expression that showed how dumb this idea was. She was happy he had a strong determination when it came to helping other squids, at least.

"Let's just go back inside Mauve's place and wait for the noise to happen again," Marie suggested an alternative plan, though Maize was ready to change into a squid and dive in the storm drain. He tapped his chin.

"Alright, I guess," Maize sighed. They had some of the morning left, as it was only around half past ten at the moment. Marie returned the umbrella to the yellow inkling, the two making their way out of the yard to get back to the home of Mauve.

"Hey, we're back!" Maize called out as they entered inside Mauve's home. Again they saw the construction manager himself not so far away from the entrance, being right in his kitchen, standing in front of the microwave. The two inklings put their umbrellas back down after closing them.

"Welcome back," Mauve greeted them. One look showed that the purple inkling was microwaving a towel, to their confusion. They wondered if the sleep deprivation had started to affect his mental state.

"Sorry, but we haven't found out what that noise was yet," Marie apologized, aware that they all had sworn to do their best and find it quickly. They heard the microwave beep, and Mauve grabbed the now warm towel out from it, and then walked toward his living room.

"Don't worry about it… that Caitlyn girl already found out what it was," the older inkling happily said. He looked a lot more cheerful knowing he could now get a good night's sleep and not worry about losing his job. That surprised the white inkling.

"Wow… really?" Marie could only say, amazed that Callie had found out what it was already, but now she wondered why her cousin had not come and told them both about the discovery either. The black inkling had left them both still blindly searching outside.

"That's great! We were more than happy to help," Maize stated with a smile, curious what the cause of the noise was. When they arrived to the living room, they saw Callie sitting on the couch. She looked relieved to see her cousin and friend.

"Oh good. You got the towel," Callie smiled. Mauve handed the towel over. Maize at last saw what the squid sister was holding. In her arms was a very tiny squid that mostly was light blue in color but had a red tinge at the end of its tentacles.

"Wh-where'd you get a squishie?!" Maize asked, shocked. Squishies were newborn inklings. This squishie did not appear to be more than a month old at most. Its eyes were red in color and they only seemed to show fear for its new environment. Agent 1 was wrapping the young squid up in the warm towel, the old cold blanket she had brought it in was lying in the floor. The squishie was absolutely shivering from being out in the cold rain so long.

"I found him out in the pile of junk. He was making that noise," Callie answered. She was doing her best to take care of the baby boy. It was unexpected to find a squishie to be the source of the noise. Maize was glad they accomplished the mission, but now it appeared they had a new one on their hands, and it was not an intentional one.

"It's a good thing you found him. He wouldn't have made it in this weather," Maize stated, not wanting to imagine the horrific outcome of the young squid being left in the cold rain. The yellow inkling pondered what to do now.

"Thanks for helping me out. But maybe it's time to contact Squishie Protective Services?" Mauve suggested that they needed to call a professional service so they could hopefully find the parents of this squishie.

"That'd probably be for th…" Marie tried to reply, but Callie spoke up.

"No way! The system would do nothing to help him!" Callie exclaimed while rubbing the squishie's head to try and reassure it was in safe hands. Maize knew this feeling in the atmosphere, to experience the Squid Sisters at another disagreement. He knew the black inkling was not entirely wrong, the most that all the protective services would do is just look through the missing squid database, and if nothing came back, they would send it to the first foster parent they could find and hope things go well.

"We'll do that as a last resort. But for now, why don't we see if we can find its parents ourselves?" Maize tried to suggest. He did not want to witness an argument between them, especially when they were guests in another squid's home. He pulled out his cellphone and took a picture of the squishie.

"Thank you, Maize. I'll take care of him while you two handle that," Callie gladly volunteered, aware that they had to get ready to leave at this point. They were far beyond intruding into Mauve's home, but he seemed glad just because he knew he would be able to sleep for once.

"Why don't you just leave him with gramps? We don't even have an idea where to start," Marie questioned as she took a picture with her phone as well. She believed Captain Cuttlefish would have no problem watching over a squishie altogether, and they could search better due to it.

"I don't think grandpa would be the best option to watch over him," Callie said, the squishie looking up to her. She knew there were a lot of things that had to be done to take care of the baby squid. She didn't want to put that burden on her grandfather.

"Heh, don't worry little guy. I promise we'll find your parents," Maize told the squishie. With that said, he left the home with Marie, both aware that Callie was going to make quite a few preparations so she could actually take care of the squishie.

"That's your third promise today," Agent 2 commented jokingly as they opened their umbrellas and made their way out, Mauve bidding them farewell.

"Yep, and already we fulfilled one promise when we solved the problem with what was causing the noise!" Maize happily reminded that he already had completed one promise. The white inkling could tell that he got some kind of adrenaline when he completed a promise. She wondered if he would be able to keep the one he made to the squishie.

"I'm more worried about what will happen when we do find his parents, though…" Maize then confessed. He was concerned about that. After all it was not often that someone lost their child on accident in someone else's yard entirely. His friend picked up on that worrying tone and gathered what he was afraid of. She put a hand on his shoulder in reassurance.

"I'm sure there is a reason. Let's focus on finding them. I'll head to Arowana Mall and see if anyone there knows anything," Marie said, ready to head to one of the most popular shopping areas in the town. Agent 3 nodded while making sure his splatterscope and the ink tank were ready on his back in case things got crazy. He wanted to be ready for anything.

"I'll head to the plaza. Call me if you find out something," Maize insisted. His close friend nodded before she headed the opposite direction. He had a funny feeling that she only wanted to go to Arowana Mall for something to eat, but as long as she did the mission as well, he did not mind. Maize began to make his way to Inkopolis Main Plaza.

Maize had continued his walk through the rain. Along the way he already had posted the picture of the squishie to Squidder, a common website that most inklings used for quick and easy messages or images. He had put up the image of the squishie in Callie's arms and add in text to ask if anyone knew the parents or the squishie itself. It was gartering a lot of views, but he presumed that was because it was a picture of something adorable online. The yellow inkling hoped it would help though.

"Yeah… this is what I expected to see," Maize muttered upon arriving to the plaza. The teenage inkling saw every other squid around, who was either taking cover under the nearest areas, relaxing in the cafe and shops, or fighting in turf wars, taking the ink washing rain as more of an added challenge. Agent 3 approached the café, deciding that was the best place to start.

"Uh, hi there. I'm from Special Squid Services. Can you tell me if you know this squishie?" Maize greeted the two, sitting at the closest table near the door. There was a couple his age sitting there, and they both were similarly dressed in academy clothing. The yellow inkling presented the picture on the phone to them both. They looked at it for a moment.

"Sorry, not many squishes are brought around the plaza," the girl apologized for not being able to help. Her boyfriend shook his head, having no idea either. Agent 3 nodded, thanking them for their time. He thought maybe it would be worth the time to visit Spyke. He was very informative when it came down to it. Maize left the café, not wanting to harass every squid in there just for the same answer. He entered into the alleyway, the rain not letting up in the slightest.

"Hello again, mate. Heard'cha trashed the club last night," Spyke greeted his friend upon seeing the familiar inkling enter the alleyway. The sea urchin was lying in the rain with little care in the world, his super sea snails all happily cuddling around him.

"Don't ask why, I had no choice! The owner was crazy! …anyway… I need to ask if you had any idea who this squishie was or where his parents are," Maize repeated the same information he asked other inklings earlier, showing his phone to the shady merchant. Spyke took the phone and looked at the image of the baby inkling. The sea urchin showed the photo to his super sea snails.

"Yep… the ma' for this thing has to be Aureolin," Spyke said, tossing the phone back. Maize caught it in his hands.

"Who?"

"Aureolin. I saw'er with the brat a week ago. She's ranked A+ in the plaza wif her crew. I'd be careful, mate, if you go near her but if you really have to look out for a gal wearing camouflage," Spyke explained as he pet one of the super sea snails. Maize was thankful that his older friend had not charged him for information, since he had no coins left.

"Thanks. I'll go find her now," Agent 3 hummed before re-entering the plaza. He saw a camouflage shirt being revealed from inside the clothing store. Maize approached and entered the store, where inside was quite full, and the shopkeeper working was even busier. Maize saw a girl in a camouflage coat and matching pants. She had bright yellow tentacles for hair, just like him, but hers was done back behind her head into a ponytail.

"Aureolin?" Maize approached, gaining her attention instantly. He had a hunch that he felt a few more sets of eyes begin to fall on him. He pulled out his cellphone once again, presenting the image to her that seemed to surprise the competitive squid.

"Who are you?" Aureolin responded. Agent 3 was happy to have her in front of him, and now he just had to interrogate her. She came off as cold and uncaring at the moment.

"I'm Maize, from Special Squid Services. Me and my friends found this squishie abandoned in some junk," Maize explained what had occurred, but Aureolin froze just from those words, shocked.

"A squishie you say…?" she stuttered, looking like she was stunned from hearing the news.

"Yes. I was hoping you could shed some light on this matter?" Maize inquired, thinking that he was getting somewhere with that expression Aureolin was showing. Immediately after, though, the female inkling had a grin, showing her sharp teeth. She had something on her mind.

"Alright. I'll talk… only if you beat me in a turf war," the female inkling retorted, with a still cold tone in her voice.

"What? A turf war?" Maize quirked, asking if he heard that right.

"Yeah! A turf war! I'm bored out of my skull anyway and need some thrills. Beat me in a turf war and I'll talk," Aureolin demanded, explaining her reasons. Maize was annoyed just by that. They both would have to tolerate random people during it, and that was only if she was going to play fair and not call her crew in to back her up. He did not seem to have any choice. Maize hadn't been in a turf war in a good few days, after all. If Aureolin was the mother of the squishie, he wasn't seeing many signs of it so far. She didn't even have the same tentacle color as the squishie did either.

"Fine. Let's go."


	8. Turf Battle

Maize had walked with Aureolin to the battle tower. They both stepped inside, a lot of other inklings were around them. Maize had to beat the other yellow inkling so he could hopefully find out if she was the parent of the squishie, or could tell him where to find them. He knew this was someone above his rank, and knew she was not unprepared. He heard her whistle.

"Hey! We got a turf challenger here!" Aureolin called out. Multiple inklings began to gather around her, at least six of them, all ranging from various clothing and weapons. Maize guessed this was her crew. Only four squids were allowed to participate in turf wars on both teams. He was wondering if they all were her rank as well in the competitive area. Maize made sure his splatterscope was ready, and he turned around, looking at all the other inklings nearby.

"Uh, anyone wanna tag in against them?" Maize requested. He did not want to go into a one vs four situation. Everyone looked nervous or afraid, though one of the inklings from the back approached, looking slightly older than Maize. He was wearing a pair of goggles and a blue shirt that had a lot of black snowflakes on it in random patterns. He also had dark pink tentacles for hair that were up in a spiky pattern on his head.

"With pleasure," the scratchy voiced inkling responded. He sounded like he was still recovering from a bad flu.

"Thank you. I'm Maize of the Special Squid Service," Maize introduced himself, shaking hands with his temporary teammate. He had started to get used to saying the Special Squid Service tagline like a personal greeting.

"My name's Umber. I saw you about to fight B+ and A- ranked squids," Umber claimed. That was the main reason that had made him step up. The yellow inkling tilted his head.

"Err… yeah, but it looks like it'll be just us," Maize stated. No one else was volunteering. The gang of the other yellow inklings had caused quite an impression, one that he was oblivious to. He was mostly warning his teammate in case he wanted out to save himself some time.

"Good. I've been eager for a challenge," Umber hummed, stretching. Maize appreciated the positive attitude. It was nice to have someone else with his turf wars who have nothing but a fun mindset.

"Alright! We're ready," Aureolin spoke up. She and her group of four looked eager to go, though the girl took notice of the uneven numbers. She felt a little bad, and it was not like she could force others into this turf war to make it fair.

"So are we," Maize smirked.

"Yeah. Just a charger and a roller ready to go," Umber nodded and gave a thumbs up. The yellow inkling felt another attempt to lower his spirits strike him. They were erratically different. One was an extremely close range specialist and the other was a long ranged fighter.

"What rank are you guys?" Aureolin asked, wondering if this was going to be a very one sided turf war.

"C+," Maize simply said.

"If you win, I'll tell ya!" Umber claimed energetically. That for some reason was very reassuring. Their opponents seemed unsure about this, but Aureolin had an agreement with the Special Squid Service member. There was no turning around now. The group approached a small platform, one of many in the arena. The yellow squid girl stepped onto one platform with her three allies. Maize hopped aboard the other with the dark red inkling, getting his splatterscope ready.

"Good luck!" Maize called out to their opponents. He did not receive much of a response. The six inklings got surrounded by two glass chambers on their individual platforms. They began filling with different colored ink. Once filled, the platforms began to drain away, the squids being sucked away in the ink.

Before Maize knew it, he appeared alongside Umber, both now with their clothes dyed green and both standing on a platform. Umber was holding a brush like weapon that was meant for extremely close ranged inkings. Their team colors had been set to bright green as well.

"Alright, here we go!" Umber exclaimed. Maize could tell where they were. With one look, they saw Hammerhead Bridge. This place had grates everywhere which were making platforms. It was a mix between solid ground and materials. There was a lot of turf to cover with ink. Maize could not tell why, but being on the very bridge that was still under construction felt off. It sure felt unfinished, maybe that Cursed Bridge tagline that the construction workers gave it was accurate. They heard the sound of the alarm ring, and instantly, they both were out of the gate, heading in opposite directions, and covering the entire ground beneath them and ahead of them in green ink at top speed.

Maize found himself on the upper platform of Hammerhead Bridge. He saw two of the enemy squids running below him. They had bright pink ink. The yellow inkling aimed his splatterscope, squeezing the trigger, charging it. Soon when one of the two enemies stopped, he let go. From above, the green ink went flying through the air fast. It hit the enemy, exploding into a rain of green ink, the enemy splattered by the strong charge shot.

"Uh oh!" Maize gulped, taking cover. The teammate who had witnessed him doing this had a tri-slosher, a bucket that used to be for cleaning supplies but had been turned into a lethal ink tool. The squid was tossing up wave after wave of pink ink. He had to take cover away from the grates, but the enemy team was covering a lot more turf than he was able to right now. He noticed some of the pink ink that had been thrown up. It had something moving through it.

"Dang it!" Maize jumped up, attempting to charge his splatterscope. He suddenly saw Aureolin pop up in front of his face. It made that instance freeze up and feel like an eternity. He tried to let go of the trigger, watching the charger blast of green ink miss and splatter harmlessly on another part of the turf.

"Surprise!" Aureolin put her aerospray up to his cheek before pulling the trigger. Pink ink hit him right in the face. He suddenly fell off the upper area and collapsed to the ground below, exploding into a puddle of pink ink. He was splatted by the enemy quite easily.

Maize groaned in pain as he reappeared at the starting point, shaking off some leftover ink that was on him. He crouched down before launching high into the air with a super jump. He flew toward his teammate Umber and landed right beside him, who appeared to be managing to cover a good amount of turf with that brush of his. Maize saw all three of Aureolin's team members surround him.

"I knew this would be a good challenge," Umber grinned, confusing his enemies who immediately tried to splat him. The dark red inkling hit a button on his brush. He instantly surrounded by a bubbler barrier, protecting him from it all. He spun around, smacking one of the enemies away with his brush, putting a green streak across the inkling's face before he exploded into a small puddle. Umber turned around to attack the next one before he could however, he saw a sudden burst of ink hitting them in the chest by a large splotch of green ink, splatting them instantly. He immediately finished off the last of the three inklings who had originally surrounded him.

"Good job!" Maize said, coming over him, having given his teammate some support. Umber high fived him, smiling, but they both suddenly noticed an odd marker appear around them briefly before vanishing.

"Yeah, this seems about right," the dark red tentacle haired boy groaned. The yellow inkling saw an ink strike coming in. He quickly changed into his squid form, swimming off through their ink. However, Umber got hit by the ink strike, being caught in a huge explosion of pink ink that engulfed the sky.

"One minute left!" they heard the judge ring out that was watching from afar. Maize got up, panting. This was a lot tougher than he expected, but he felt enthralled. It was really fun. He saw some pink ink splotches land near him. He looked up to spot Aureolin who was on the high ground shooting at him. He quickly dodged while charging his splatterscope.

"I swear, you're targeting only me!" Maize chuckled. The yellow squid girl smirked.

"And what if I am?" she hummed bashfully before pulling back, attempting to shoot around her enemy to try and trap him. Maize fired, hitting her in the leg, but she survived the fully charged shot and was able to take cover. The splatterscope was usually such a strong weapon like all chargers.

"Here we go," Maize hit a button on his splatterscope before putting it on his back. Two triangular ink filled bombs appeared in both hands. He began chucking them all up toward the upper area. He was using bomb rush, which gave him unlimited ink for bombs for a brief few seconds.

"Oh, splat-!" Aureolin got surrounded by multiple of those bombs which detonated moments after landing, leaving splashes of green ink around and splattering her as well. Maize was happy about this. But then he heard a loud noise, indicating it was time to stop. Maize returned to the starting location to hear the verdict. Umber was there and waiting. They saw an anthropomorphic cat who had black and white fur that looked like it formed a pair of overalls and a pointy tail. He was Judd the Judge the cat, who lived with the squid sisters but also had the ability to tell how much turf was covered with just the quickest of looks.

"Let's see… green team, you covered 43% of the area, and pink team, you covered 55%. The winner is… pink team!" Judd exclaimed while pulling out a flag aimed at Aureolin's team, his tail pointing at them, too. Maize could hear that opponent's group cheering when they reappeared at the battle tower, their clothes returning to their former colors.

"You did good out there," Umber told the yellow squid.

"Thanks. You were amazing with a brush," Maize smiled, complimenting him in response. They saw the other yellow inkling approach.

"You guys did really well for just the two of you," Aureolin stated, impressed. Normally two squids being outnumbered would just powerlessly be forced to their starting point and be splatted endlessly, and rarely get any turf covered.

"Thanks. It was a lot of fun," Maize nodded while fixing his splatterscope on his back. The dark red inkling beside him stretched.

"Yeah. It was a good challenge. Since you beat me, I'll let ya in on my rank… I'm an S+," Umber hummed. That seemed to stun both yellow inklings. He seemed so carefree and casual about it.

"Wh-what?! An S+?! Why aren't you with a squad? Why did you agree to a two vs four?" Aureolin had a chain of questions. That was the highest rank available, and with it, this squid could literally gather a crew with the snap of his fingers if he just spoke of his rank more.

"Eh. Ranks are just letters to me. I'm just looking for challenges no matter what they are, and for a C+ ranked squid, this kid here has a lot of heart… and guts, too," Umber commented, patting Maize's back. It embarrassed him to be complimented like that, though he was painfully reminded that he was a B+ in the ranked turf wars just the other day.

"I'm just here to have fun. But I guess since we lost, I won't be getting the information from you," Maize stated, aware of their agreement. Even so, if this was the mother of that squishie standing before him, she sure seemed unattached. Being reminded of this seemed to depress Aureolin a little.

"Good sportsmanship shouldn't be shunned," Aureolin sighed while beginning to rub her own tentacle in shame, feeling like a bully to have ganged up on two inklings like that.

"So you'll tell me?" Maize asked.

"Yeah. But let's talk somewhere more appropriate," Aureolin nodded. She was going to tell him the information now that her boredom had been cured. Umber looked glad for Maize, even if he had no idea of the context of the situation.

"I'm gonna go grab a bite. You have a good one, Maize," Umber bid him farewell before walking away. The two squids also left the battle tower and went back out into the rainy plaza. The weather had lightened up somewhat, but it still was quite heavy. The two made their way over to the cafe to begin what Maize hoped to be a good explanation that would help the search for the squishie's parents.


	9. Parents

Maize had went with Aureolin to the cafe nearby. The place was still quite crowded. No one enjoyed the rain, it appeared. The two had taken a seat near one of the windows away from the crowd. They both had gotten a cup of coffee each.

"Okay. Where do you want me to start?" Aureolin sighed. This seemed like a really hard topic for her to handle. The yellow boy felt bad to be forcing her into recalling such clearly painful memory like this. He pondered on where to start this conversation. There was no real good area to tackle first, so it made sense to start simple.

"So are you the mother of the squishie?" Maize asked. That felt like the calmest place to start building the conversation on.

"Bondi," she said.

"Huh?" he raised an eyebrow.

"His names Bondi… and no, I'm not his mother. I was supposed to be, though," she answered. Already he was lost in this conversation, starting to think that maybe the old metaphor of everything was complicated was true, or at least everything was for him lately.

"Did you adopt Bondi?" Maize asked. That sounded like what she was referring too, but she shook her head, taking a chug of her coffee.

"I used to have a boyfriend, you see. We were a great duo in the ranked area. After two years of dating, we decided we wanted to have a squishie. A month later of trying, I find out I'm not able to carry one, so we had someone else to carry our squishie," Aureolin explained. She was not able to get pregnant, so she had to use a surrogate to help fill in that void. She seemed to grow even more depressed each passing moment as she remembered it all.

"I thought it would be the happiest moments of our lives. Yet, when we had Bondi, I felt nothing. No love, no joy. Just every day that passed, me and my boyfriend grew more and more apart," Aureolin continued. She had no connection with the squishie emotionally or genetically. She had tried everything to find that joy that every mother had, but she could simply not acquire it.

"What happened to your relationship?" Maize hesitantly questioned, wanting to know what happened to Bondi's father. It was at least simple to know that her boyfriend was the actual father to the squishie. Aureolin looked like she had a nerve struck and was ready to break down.

"H-he… Basil became obsessed with ranked turf wars. We broke up a month ago. I insisted he take Bondi because he always brought him back to reality. One of the times I tried to visit, he set me up so that I appeared like a complete lunatic. Now I can never be around Bondi," Aureolin stated. Maize suddenly recognized the name. Basil had fought him a few times before, but that was when he was around the regular B rank that was going to take some effort to get back. He thought this sounded insane. If it wasn't for the look in her eyes, he would never have believed it in a hundred years.

"That's… horrible… what can I do to help?" Maize brought up the biggest question on his mind. The yellow squid girl sniffled, looking to him. As a Special Squid Services member, he looked so reassuring. No matter what, he would get the job done in some way. There was only one real thing she could think of.

"You're an honest squid with a good mindset…" Aureolin smiled. She felt her vocal cords fighting against her.

"Please… find Bondi a better home. A family that will love him," Aureolin requested. Maize looked at her, gaining a smile. He walked over to her and dug around in his pocket before pulling out his cellphone, pulling up the picture of her son and presenting it before her.

"I think I know the perfect someone," Maize told her. Aureolin looked at the picture of Bondi being held in the other agents arms, tears welling in her eyes. She never could get emotionally attached to her squishie like a mother, but she still cared deeply and knew she would miss him.

"Ca-can you send me the picture?" Aureolin asked, putting her phone number into his contact list. The yellow inkling nodded, taking his cellphone back.

"Of course. But first, I have to find your ex," Maize responded. She looked concerned about this.

"What ar-are you going to do?" the yellow squid girl nervously asked. There seemed to be little reason to find her ex-boyfriend, especially if Bondi was now safe. There was a new determined look in Maize's eyes as he sent the photo to her phone.

"I promised to find both of Bondi's parents. I still have one more to find, and I want the whole truth from him," Maize exclaimed that promise, one of his many that he made with little hesitation or forethought, but Agent 3 took each one just as serious as the next whether they were small or large. Aureolin admired that the search for the truth was driven by a promise. It was nice to know good squids like him existed.

"You take care, Aureolin. The Special Squid Services won't let you or your son down. I promise," Maize gave a thumbs up, and he began to make his way out of the café. When he stepped outside, the rain seemed to have begun to come to an end. The only thing left was a light drizzle. The young squid boy made sure his splatterscope on his back was ready as he left the plaza. If Basil was not battling in the tower, then he had to be somewhere else.

"Huh?" he heard his phone begin ringing with a special tone that he recognized easily. He pulled it out of his pocket, before putting it to his ear.

"Y'ello?"

"Maize! Hey I have great news!" it was Marie, and she sounded ecstatic. Maize hoped it was something good.

"What is it?" the yellow inkling asked her to continue.

"I found the squishie's father. He was at Arowana Mall," the squid sister happily said.

"Really? That's perfect! I found the mother," Maize smirked. His luck once again shined through for him.

"Wow! It must be that squishie's lucky day," Marie said, "You bring the mom over to…"

"Nope. Those two should not be near each other. I'm on my way and make sure he doesn't go anywhere…" Maize sternly ordered. Agent 2 was confused, having never heard that tone from him before. It did not sound like anger, but it sounded like pure focus and determination in his voice. He had something on his mind. He hung up the cellphone before making a run for Arowana Mall, which was not too far away from here.

Maize had ran most of the way, dodging the occasional traffic. He was beginning to arrive to the huge mall, where he could see a lot of inklings in it today. Nothing out of the ordinary, but the items on sale here did not nearly match the quality of the shops around the plaza. The mall was more of a hangout spot than anything. The yellow squid saw the white tentacle haired girl standing near the entrance, still dawning her disguise.

"There you are," Marie greeted him. He continued walking so she followed alongside him.

"Where is he?" Maize immediately cut to the point as the automatic doors slid aside, letting them inside. She grabbed his arm. Maize looked down at her gloved hand.

"He was at the food court a few minutes ago. Maize, what's going on?" Marie asked, worried. Agent 3 reached down and gently removed her hand from his arm.

"I'm fulfilling a promise… and I need to find out the truth for Bondi's sake," Maize nodded while pulling his splatterscope and ink tank off his back, handing them to his close friend.

"Bondi?" she tilted her head, confusedly.

"Oh! That's the squishie's name," he stated. That was a cute name, she thought. She was hoping he had learnt a lot from the squishie's mother in turn.

"Please don't do something stupid," Marie requested, seeing that optimistic grin of his.

"Now that is something I can't promise!" he apologized, beginning to approach the food court. She pointed out one inkling to the centre of the food court. There was a nice fountain in the centre, with pure water spraying out of it.

"So that's Basil…" Maize muttered the name of the inkling Marie had pointed to. He had short dark green tentacles for hair that were covering one of his red eyes, and he was wearing a baseball cap facing backwards and a green leather coat. He had a tentatek splattershot dangling off his side, a fast shooting weapon that could cover a decent amount of ground in a turf war. Marie watched her yellow friend approach him.

"Hey! Are you Basil?" Agent 3 asked, seeing an ink tank behind on his back full of light green ink. He tilted his head upon seeing him.

"If I said no, would that get you to shut up sooner? I'm busy, what do you want?" Basil all too crudely greeted him. He sure did not appear occupied though, as if just standing here was classified as busy.

"I'm Maize of the Special Squid Services. What are you busy doing?" Maize responded, brushing the insult aside uncaringly. The green squid was quiet for a moment, as if he was doing his best to unsubtlety tell the agent to just buzz off.

"If you really must know, I'm looking for teammates to tackle ranked. I'm a fresh A+ squid, ready to hit the tops," Basil explained. He was looking for similarly ranked inklings to join him, but so far that had been lacking any results. Maize pulled out his cellphone and showed the picture of Bondi to the squishie's father.

"You recognize him?" the yellow inkling demanded an answer.

"Get that out of my face," Basil huffed, turning his gaze away. Maize did not like that response one bit. He put his hand in the fountain beside him and splashed some water on the green inkling. It irritated him, but gained his attention.

"Answer me. Are you this squishie's father?" Maize further demand. He was irritating the other inkling.

"Yeah. What about it? Why does everyone want to know about my brat today?" Basil asked. Marie had already inquired with him about his son earlier. It did nothing to calm down Maize's building anger.

"I know what you did. Now I want you to be very honest with me. Why did you dump your son in a pile of junk?" Maize demanded. The high ranked squid gained a cocky smirk.

"My girlfriend is supposed to be watching him. I had no idea…" Basil's incomplete lie did nothing. Maize shoved him against the fountain, startling him.

"I talked to Aureolin already."

"Y-ya did?" the green squid nervously responded. He sighed, giving in. He was getting sick of being hassled like this.

"If it'll get ya to leave me alone, fine. I'll tell ya the truth." Just what Maize wanted to hear. He let go of the shirt, pocketing his phone while crossing his arms.

"I need to focus on my career, you see. If I wanna become a professional turf war player, I'll never get anywhere close to S+ ranked in my life with that brat weighing me down. His mom's not allowed to be near him anymore, so I figured there was only one option, so I tossed him somewhere that I knew another squid would find him easily," Basil explained. Things got silent between the two of them after Maize had heard that. Marie was just watching from afar, seeing her friend looking down, biting his lip.

"Now get outta here, you low ranked mess," the green inkling insulted, grabbing his tentatek splattershot.

"You… messed up loach!" Maize tackled Basil, grabbing his wrist and his splattershot. The two struggled for a brief moment until Maize headbutted Basil, making him let go in pain. He got his grip on the splattershot, pointing in the face of the green squid. Maize had almost knocked his own glasses off doing that. Basil was on the floor and seemed stunned, seeing the anger conveyed in Maize's eyes.

"You didn't put that squishie anywhere near safe! Let alone where it could be found! Instead you threw it in a pile of trash and left it in the cold rain! If my friend had not found him, do you know what would have happened to him?" Maize demanded an answer. Marie never had seen her friend like this. He normally was so resilient when it came to withholding his emotions, but now he was just losing it.

"H… he would have got sick," Basil gulped.

"And what if no one found him after that?" the yellow squid insisted he continue.

"He would ha-have… went through the cold night, and that would make him sicker…" he kept answering. That glare from Maize alone wanted him to finish this train of thought.

"And th-then… Bondi could have died," Basil finished. It seemed to be sinking into him. Maize pulled hard, ripping out the splattershot from the green ink tank on the green squids back, causing the ink to flow out onto the floor before he smashed the ink weapon.

"That's right! You almost killed a squishie, one that you helped be birthed, and all for a letter and some bragging rights! You had an actual life, and a family… and what did you do?! You threw it all away because you're obsessed with something fun, and you made it very competitive for yourself! I don't know about you, but this… this is a crime of a fool!" Maize exclaimed in fury. He looked ready to rip out the now terrified Basil's throat. This anger was piercing that obnoxious attitude he had.

"Now you listen well… I made a promise to your ex to find Bondi a loving caring family. I hope you enjoy getting into S rank, because when you get that little letter, you'll know what all you lost just to get it!" Maize panted, having finished his rant. That really had drawn attention from a lot of inklings from not just the first floor of Arowana Mall, but also from the second floor. They really had made a dramatic scene. Maize brushed his tentacles back to normal and fixed his glasses before beginning to walk away.

"Let's go. We've finished our mission," Maize told Marie as he came to her, taking his splatterscope back and tossing it over his shoulder, making sure it got on his back. She looked awestruck, covering her mouth with one hand.

"You alright, Marie?" Maize quietly questioned so no other squid would realize she was the famous squid sister herself. They didn't need a mob rushing her for autographs right now.

"Yes… I mean… just, wow. I've never seen you so angry," Marie claimed while handing his ink tank back to him that he also put on his back. He let out a sigh of relief, looking at Agent 2. His usual smile came back.

"It was just that one squid. The truth sometimes does that," Maize disappointingly said. He was glad to know he was going to help a squishie's life. He had come up with a great idea already in his mind. The two walked out of Arowana Mall.

"Mind if I come to your place?" Maize requested. He saw her look unamused. He seemed happy and cheerful like his old self like that moment of rage was nothing.

"Why? There's only gonna be Callie and the squishie," Marie asked, wondering what he wanted to come with her to the Squid Sisters' home for, but she was aware that Bondi was there, but she could just call her sister up to meet them somewhere else in Inkopolis.

"I'll explain when we get there. Can you just trust me with this? It's really important," Maize answered. Marie thought on it for a second. She and her sister would soon be swamped in work on preparing for the splatfest that was coming soon.

"Okay. But only because you keep asking a lot lately," she gave in, accepting to have him over at their home as a guest for the first time ever.

"Great! Lead the way," Maize hummed. Marie was glad to have the Agent 3 she knew back to normal, possibly even cheerier now. They just had to head all the way over to the Squid Sisters' home. After all the hard work the yellow squid did, he was hopeful he could help improve a family's lives. He just hoped for Basil to snap out of his narcissistic mindset, but it was seemingly going to be unlikely. He felt bad for Aureolin, but he had to fulfill his promise to her. He followed Marie off to get to the Squid Sisters' home.


	10. Adoption

Maize had followed Marie for quite some time. He was starting to mentally ponder why they did not just call for a taxi, but he knew there was some reason behind it. The sun was beginning to lower at around four in the evening. It would only take a couple of hours before nightfall.

"Also I better not ever catch you trying to break into our home," Marie threatened. Agent 3 groaned, knowing that this probably was a more high costing home. He was beginning to recognize the area more and more.

"I'd never try to break into your place, especially with the cap'n around," Maize chuckled nervously. They walked through a small side alley and arrived into a huge open sandlot that had tall apartment buildings surrounding it.

"Wait… you guys live in Flounder Heights?!" Maize said in surprise. This was one of the most expensive places to live for an apartment complex, but he had been told that every single apartment was as big and nice as a regular home. He recalled hearing Callie complain about how she and her sister would live here if it wasn't so expensive.

"Well, we got a raise after we started to get more popular outside of Inkopolis. So we moved into this place not too long ago," Marie stated. It was a bit of a punch to the stomach to Maize to just be reminded of how broke he was. Flounder Heights was another turf war location. He was happy that it was not one of the current four maps, otherwise they would already have been coated in ink. They approached the entrance to the second complex.

"Whoa…" Maize could only say as the entrance had led them straight into a small hallway. They had two options; they could either take the stairs or the elevator. They both opted into the elevator, stepping inside. Marie pushed the button to the third floor, the doors closing and the elevator beginning to rise slowly.

"Uhh, Marie, I have to apologize," Maize coughed, confusing her. She did not even want to know what he was apologizing for.

"For what?" she rubbed her head tiredly.

"For, y'know, freaking out back there on that guy…" the yellow squid reminded. His friend in green shook her head.

"He had it coming. Someday, you'll be a great dad, unlike that guy," Marie complimented Maize. The mindset that he had was amazing. He would be a perfect father figure. He gained a small blush from her saying that, but he knew by the end of this visit, the Squid Sister would most likely be very upset with him. The elevator came to a stop and opened up, letting them off. They exited onto the third floor.

"How do you think Callie did with Bondi?" Maize asked as they headed down the right side of the hall, hoping that Agent 1 had taken good care of the squishie, but he knew that neither of the Squid Sisters really had much experience with young inklings aside from the ones who were their fans.

"As long as they both aren't crying, I'll call that a good job," Marie joked. They arrived to the end of the hall. The door number for the apartment was 309. She pulled out her key and unlocked the door, leading her friend inside. Their apartment looked great, and just at the entrance already showed a small stand with a vase on it filled with brightly colored flowers, and a nice oil painting of Captain Cuttlefish hanging on the wall. Maize was glad those two loved their elder quite a lot.

"Hey, Callie! You here?" Marie called out, wondering if her cousin was even home at the moment. Maize entered the living room which also looked nice, having a couch with two foot stools in front of it and some pillows lined on it. The television was a decent sized flat screen. Maize could tell that this apartment was decorated with both of the Squid Sisters' personalities in mind. It must have been quite a pain for the two of them to agree to what they wanted while decorating. He then took notice of the long window that gave a great view out beyond.

"Yeah! I'm just in the kitchen!" Callie's voice rung out. They both went through a small doorway. The kitchen had too many electronics in it. Maize could never see himself using one thing. He had enough trouble making grilled cheese without being paranoid about accidentally starting a fire. They saw the black inkling standing near the microwave. She had changed out of her disguise and was wearing her favorite outfit, a black stylish shirt with no sleeves that had three pink marks running down it, and a pink and white hat on her head.

"Feels good to see you in your usual clothes," Maize commented. Callie nodded in agreement, turning to him. She was holding Bondi. The small squishie was content in her arms. The microwave was still running, slowly heating up a bottle inside it.

"Wow. I'm surprised you handled babysitting a squishie all day," Marie admitted. She did not expect everything to be calm when they arrived to the famous squids' home. Maize had to agree with her on that one.

"Well, he cried once, but otherwise he's been pretty calm," Callie smiled. She then heard the microwave beep, indicating it was done. She opened it and pulled out the bottle of formula, making sure it was freshly warm before beginning to feed Bondi. The squishie looked very happy to have the bottle.

"We found Bondi's parents," Maize informed Agent 1.

"His name's Bondi? That's so cute…" Callie could only say. She seemed caught between happy and sad, wondering where the parents were. If they knew where the squishie's real parents were, then she questioned why her cousin and close friend had not just called her to bring the newborn and meet up with them.

"Once he finishes the bottle, we'll go take him to his parents," Callie added. The other agents gained an unsure look, Marie knowing that their blonde friend had something in mind but unable to figure out what. They went to the living room so they could continue the talk.

"Sorry, Callie. We can't take him to his mother. She's not allowed to be around him anymore," Agent 3 stated. He had already brought Marie up to speed over what happened to the squishie's mother after they left Arowana Mall.

"Oh. Well, I'm sure his father will be happy to see him again…" Agent 1 presumed the squishie's father could get his son back. Marie was leaving it up to their dear friend to handle this conversation. He was better at interacting with her cousin in more unsure situations when no one had any idea what was going to happen.

"That's the other thing. His father is a huge jerk. He left Bondi in that pile of trash. He's no father… just a rank obsessed lunatic," Maize added. Now Callie was not speaking up. The squishie was happily enjoying his formula, having almost drank the whole bottle already. She had been doing her best to take care of him today and make sure he was not going to get sick after being in the rain for so long.

"I'm sorry, Callie, but you know what we said would be the last resort if this didn't work out," Marie apologetically reminded them of how they had planned on informing Squishie Protective Services. The best thing that could happen is the newborn squid could be adopted.

"Can you give us a minute, Marie? I need to have a personal talk with them," Maize requested. Marie nodded, thinking if anyone could cheer up her cousin, it would be the yellow inkling himself. She left the living room to go change out of her disguise. The young inkling sat down beside the Squid Sister.

"It's so sad, Maize… and unfair. You found his parents, but neither can have him," Callie exclaimed, sounding upset from imagining the torn apart family. He could go into extreme detail and explain to her why and what happened, but he just wanted to leave it simply that the father of the squishie made too many mistakes in a row.

"We're agents of the Special Squid Service. We have to do everything we can to help out every squid," Maize declared. Callie looked at him for a moment, then her odd eyes reverted back to the squishie that had finished the bottle. She took it away from Bondi and put it aside, cradling the newborn in her arms.

"But sometimes our best isn't enough, right?" Callie guessed what he was going to say next. He shook his head.

"Everything we do, small or big, no matter what, will change some squid's life for the better, if that is what we choose to do… and I choose to do it with my promises," he exclaimed. To him, there was no such thing as the term "never enough". Effort was effort, and as long as he could handle these crazy missions, he was going to keep doing them. Agent 3 stood up and got in front of Agent 1.

"You and your cheesy lines…" Callie giggled, speaking another comment about how he spoke. He had cheered her up a little, brightening the mood of the conversation. He brushed the comment aside.

"I'll make the call to Squishie Protective Services. Since we have no options left," the Squid Sister sighed. Maize rubbed Bondi's head, the blue squishie enjoying it.

"We have two options actually. Bondi's mother wanted me to find him a loving family, and I promised I would," Maize told Callie. She wondered if he was actually considering handling Bondi himself and trying to find him a better home for the squishie.

"And Callie, I've seen you with this squishie. You took care of it and gave it everything it needed. I think you'd be the perfect one to raise Bondi," Maize suggested that the Squid Sister adopt the squishie. He could tell just by watching that she loved him and had adapted to handling a newborn quite well.

"Wh-what?! You're saying… I should be his parent?" Callie had to ask him to repeat the information, not able to believe what she had heard. She never expected to have this kind of conversation with someone she considered a best friend, he almost was like a brother to the Squid Sisters. Hearing all of this was stunning to her.

"I'm saying I think you'd be a great mother. But really, it's your decision in the end. If you decide not to, then I'll take care of Bondi and make sure he finds a loving home to fulfil my promise," Maize told her, aware that this was a sudden request and a life altering decision that would put a lot of responsibility on one of them. He could see the look on Callie's face that she was trying to think about it rationally.

"I feel… I feel like my heart is trying to talk instead of my brain," Callie lightly laughed, seeing Bondi looking up to her. She put her other hand on his stomach. He let out an odd noise, feeling tickled from the smallest touch that made the agents smile.

"You have to use both when it comes to something like this," Maize claimed, not wanting to put any pressure on his great friend. He felt horrible for forcing her into this heavy decision. Each minute that passed felt like an hour. Callie closed her eyes, trying to go through her thoughts.

"Alright…" she said. He tilted his head.

"Hm?" Maize wondered what she was meant. He watched the Squid Sister give the squishie a gentle hug.

"I'll do it. I'll be his mother," Callie agreed to raising Bondi, aware that there would be hard times and calm times at once. On top of her already busy lifestyle, raising a squishie was another layer on top of that. She stood up, wrapping an arm around Maize, catching him by surprise.

"Do you think you can make me a promise, though?" she requested. Maize gained a grin across his face as their hug broke.

"That's my specialty," he laughed.

"Promise me that I can rely on you if I need help," Callie requested. She wanted to know that the reliable inkling would be able to help. A promise from him seemed perfect. She just wanted to be safe in case Marie and her grandpa were not able to help.

"I gladly promise to help whenever you need me," Maize gave a thumbs up. That cheerful personality was rubbing off on Callie. She was making plans already to do some shopping. They had to do a lot to get the proper preparations for Bondi's care. She and Maize suddenly noticed Marie return.

"Marie! I have great news!" Callie handed Bondi over to Maize. The squishie seemed saddened to be out of her arms, but Maize did his best to make sure the newborn squid was calm.

"Did another one of our albums go platinum?" Marie asked her main hope. They already were rich with coin cards, but the more coins, the merrier. Marie got grabbed by her cousin, pulling her into a tight hug.

"I'm adopting Bondi!" Callie told the white inkling. That expression on Marie's face described how she felt about this.

"Wait, what?! Why is it whenever I'm out of the room something crazy happens with you two?" Marie gasped, annoyed. She focused her glare on Maize. The yellow inkling chuckled before he returned the squishie to his new mother.

"Sorry, Marie. A promise is a promise," Maize apologized. He had to fulfil the promise he made to Aureolin no matter what, but now he felt bad for not discussing it over with Marie sooner. All he knew was that he was going to be trying to get things settled down from now, but one look at the new mother brought a smile to his face. Callie held Bondi in her arms, ready to get everything prepared with her cousin and close friend's help.


	11. Unexpected Request

Maize was walking to his home. The sun had set a while ago when he had spent the rest of the day with the Squid Sisters. Callie had needed both of them to help get everything prepared for Bondi. After they had spent the first hour trying to convince Marie that it was a good thing, which was the hardest part of it all, things started to calm down. The yellow squid was drained but felt pretty good to have gotten that squishie a loving parent to care for it. Suddenly, he heard his phone make a beeping noise, indicating that a text message had been received.

"Oh? It's from the cap'n," Maize noticed while viewing the text message from Captain Cuttlefish, but it was not the usual message he expected.

"Please come right over to Octo Valley."

He was unsure how to feel about this. He had not been to Octo Valley ever since the great zapfish had been stolen. He hoped nothing bad had happened, but as far as he was aware, everything was normal. With his splatterscope and his ink tank on his back, he was ready for anything. He thankfully was not too far from the Inkopolis Plaza either, so he began to make his way over, seeing the street lights starting to illuminate the streets. He was glad to see how calm everything was tonight, especially after that hectic day.

"Wow… and I thought it was crowded earlier today," Maize said when he arrived to the main plaza. There were two huge trucks there amongst the crowd of inklings and squids who were here to do some turf battles. Maize knew what these trucks meant. It was a sign that the next splatfest was going to begin within a few days. He had voted for team planes, but he never told the Squid Sisters what he voted for, because whatever he voted for was whom he sided with.

Maize went toward a corner off to the side, where he saw a huge hatch beneath it beside some vending machines. He stepped on top of it before looking over his shoulder. No one was paying too much attention. He changed into his squid form and fell between the pipes of the hatch, falling into the tunnel below.

The tunnel had went on for a short time before he reached the other end of it. He turned back into his inkling form, and he reached up and grabbed onto a small ladder. He pushed the hatch open and climbed on through, popping his head out and viewing the area. He appeared to be in some odd area that was hidden very well outside of Inkopolis.

"Ah! Squiddo, glad you're here," Maize heard, pulling himself out of the tunnel, the hatch closing behind him. He saw Captain Cuttlefish standing nearby. Beside him was a wooden board full of various articles of paper, writings and pictures. On his other side was a snow globe like object, containing within it a small red octopus in a golden helmet floating within.

"Hi, cap'n… and DJ Octavio," Maize greeted them. DJ Octavio was the former leader of the octolings, a race similar to inklings, but they had evolved from octopuses instead of squids. The agents and Captain Cuttlefish had all been doing their best to make sure no attempts at war broke out. The great zapfish being taken was a horrible step toward that, but thankfully Agent 1 2 and 3 handled it. DJ Octavio gave his usual hate induced glare.

"Eh, don't worry about Octavio here. He's just in a bad mood," Captain Cuttlefish stated. It sure seemed like that the DJ was always in a crabby mood after his defeat.

"What is it you needed from me, cap'n?" Maize then asked. He wondered if he was informed yet about the adoption or not, but it appeared that he had not heard the news yet. The captain looked positively happy.

"Well, first off, let me say good job, Squiddo! You and the other agents have made a great name for Special Squid Services. We're gaining a marvellous bundle of reviews that are absolutely positive," Captain Cuttlefish exclaimed. All the hard work that Maize Callie and Marie had been putting in was paying off already. The site only had been up a few days, but now Squelp was positively booming with reviews.

"Anytime, cap'n. I owe you a lot, after all," Maize saluted his leader. The elderly squid rested his cane aside and sat down on a small wooden chair he had lying around. The elder did not appear to want to bring up the past.

"I have a mission for you. Well, someone else does actually, but first, it's sleep time, Octavio," Captain Cuttlefish grabbed a small blanket off the floor, throwing it on top of the snow globe the DJ octopus was trapped within. They heard some furious tapping. Clearly DJ Octavio did not enjoy being treated like a pet bird. Maize chuckled, enjoying hearing the fury.

"So who needs my help?" Maize asked, the captain tapping his cane on the board beside him, making a loud clacking noise that echoed.

"C'mon out now, darling. You've got nothing to be afraid of," Captain Cuttlefish called out to someone that Agent 3 could not see. It only took a moment before his eyes went wide with shock at what he saw emerge from behind the wooden board.

"N-no way!" Maize had his hand on his splatterscope already. He saw an octopus girl who was his age. She had messy tentacles for hair stuck up in a spiky pattern around her head, and wore an odd pair of goggles that hid both of her eyes, and a metal piece of armor on top of her black shirt and bottom.

"Whoa, don't slather me!" the octoling begged, throwing her hands up defensively. Maize was used to the rouge inklings that occasionally attacked him. He wondered why he should not attack her however. This seemed like a pre-emptive invasion, like some kind of recon duty. But he had no idea what she meant, by slather. He presumed it was the octoling preferred word for splatter.

"Ease up, squiddo. She needs the Special Squid Services' help," Captain Cuttlefish insisted, but when the yellow inkling did not immediately let go of his grip on his weapon, he hit him in the head with his cane.

"Ow! Fine… so why are we helping an octoling?" Maize requested while fixing his glasses. They were going to help someone that they considered an enemy. It had to be startling if the captain himself had not already activated one of the many emergency traps he had prepared nearby. The octopus girl came off as shy, initially after their greeting.

"Ask her yourself," the captain insisted He not interact in a hostile manner with the red tentacle girl. Maize nodded, rubbing his own head, feeling somewhat nervous on the matter.

"So you need the Special Squid Services? What's going on?" Maize asked, feeling uncomfortable in this situation. He really had to wonder if their website was getting this popular that it was spreading to areas outside of Inkopolis. If that was true, there would be a lot of out of town requests that he did not even want to imagine it. The octoling reached up to the goggles on her face, taking them off, revealing light pinkish eyelids and her brown eyes underneath.

"It's my sister. I'm an inventor, you see, and once a month, there is a special event held. The best invention gets picked to be more commonly produced and have investors research it further. My sister gave me a great idea, but before I knew it, the other octolings competing had broken into our workshop! They burnt my blueprints and kidnapped my sister!" the octoling explained to the best of her ability. Maize was not expecting to hear that. He wondered if this was even remotely related to the octoling army.

"Wow… I've never heard of anything that competitive before," Maize commented. He wished that was a true statement, but lately there had been way too many other squids taking ranked turf wars too seriously. He could tell that the female octopus was upset over what happened.

"I know where they took her though! My sister has a photographic memory. I need her back if I want a chance to even build that invention," she added, that pleading look showing on her face. The yellow squid looked to the captain who seemed more occupied, viewing his phone, appearing very confused.

"Well… we can't let a good invention go to waste. How old is your sister?" Maize quirked, seeing her rubbing her own tentacles to try to calm herself, but that was not the best way to under a horrible situation.

"She's only five years old! I do my best to take care of her," she claimed. The squid boy was horrified to imagine that someone would kidnap a young octoling like this all over an invention competition. Were the investors really that important, he wondered. The octoling in front of him that was his age appeared eighteen at most.

"Alright. Well, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Maize of the Special Squid Services, and I will save your sister!" Maize declared, though his sudden volume increase to his voice startled the octoling into hiding behind the board again. That made him feel a little guilty.

"Re-really? …I'm Octoronia," Octoronia introduced herself, wondering if he really will help save her sibling from the other octolings. He nodded, giving a thumbs up.

"Nice to meet you. Don't worry, your sister will be back safe and sound. I promise," he reassured. That seemed to help calm her down. She was beginning to relax around him. Maize came off quite reassuring when he was not unintentionally yelling.

"I'll be coming with you," Octoronia insisted. Maize didn't argue with that, aware that if it was his sibling in danger, he would be nowhere near able to rest easily.

"Let's get going then. You lead the way," Maize instructed. Octoronia nodded. The two were about to walk away, but Maize wanted to see if everything was alright with the captain first.

"You alright, cap'n?" he asked worriedly. The elder squid chuckled.

"Oh yeah. I just think I need glasses. I'm not reading this text right," Captain Cuttlefish presented his cellphone which showed the text message from Callie to her grandfather.

"You're a great grandsquid now!" Maize read it silently for him.

"Uhh…" Maize sheepishly smiled. Octoronia tilted her head, wondering why the atmosphere got a lot more awkward.

"I'm reading this wrong… right?" Captain Cuttlefish repeated the question. The yellow inkling just turned around and grabbed the octoling's hand.

"Congratulations, cap'n! I-I had no idea! I'll see you later!" Maize ran off, not sure how Captain Cuttlefish would take the news, especially if Callie had adopted the child through the yellow squid's suggestion. He was dragging Octoronia along toward the direction she had intended on taking him through. She was not exactly enjoying trying to keep up with him, but she hoped this would work out.


	12. Mollusk Metropolis

Maize had followed Octoronia for a short time. They had arrived to an area that resembled an empty skate park. Octo Valley housed a lot of areas like this. The yellow squid always pondered what it was like a long time ago. He had to assume there was a lot different back then, but that was another tale he could try to ask about with Captain Cuttlefish.

"It's over here," Octoronia motioned him over. He saw a lot of grass and other debris covering something that was right beside a half pipe. He moved some aside, seeing another hatch hidden beneath it, the pipes bent and damaged.

"So before we go, is there anything I need to know or do?" Maize questioned, aware that when going to an area filled with another race, he would stick out horribly. A lot of octolings did not take kindly to the presence of inklings. The octopus fixed her goggles onto her eyes.

"Well… when we get there, we'll need to get you a disguise, I guess… and you need to leave the charger here. It's not octoling technology," Octoronia stated. Agent 3 did not mind the disguise that much, but felt disheartened from having to leave his splatterscope behind. He was attached to the weapon so much. He took it off his back along with the ink tank filled with yellow ink, and he rested them down together nearby. He could only hope the octoling had some backup weapons. If they were going to save her sister, firepower was definitely needed.

"Alright. Let's go," Maize nodded, ready. He watched her stand on top of the hatch before changing into an octopus and slipping in through the broken bars. It would take him some time to get used to seeing that. Maize changed into his squid form and followed behind her, unsure what he was going to see on the other side, being stuck between feeling excited and afraid.

It was a very long travel for them. The pipes felt endless the longer they were in there. The octopus girl seemed to not care remotely like she had done this many times before. The further they went, the more Maize began to make note of how there seemed to be breaks in the walls of the big pipe. Tree roots were seeping through and beginning to grow within, as well as the occasional grass and dirt that had begun to take root within.

"Alright it's just up ahead!" Octoronia exclaimed while changing back to her normal form, Maize changing as well. The two walked from there. Normally their alternate forms were just less tiring.

"What's up ahead?" Maize quirked, seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, which was odd since it was probably eight in the evening right now. They arrived to another hatch that was in front of them instead of above. Octoronia pushed hard, beginning to open it. Once it was open wide enough, she smiled.

"You'll see in a second!" the octoling excitedly claimed. Maize stepped outside, and he saw one individual lamp dangling in front of the hatch off a tree branch. This tree was the only one he could see. A few steps later, Maize's eyes slowly went wide in awe. They both were standing on top of a Cliffside. Octoronia let go of the hatch, which slammed shut loudly. She then approached beside him.

"Welcome to Mollusk Metropolis!" Octoronia introduced Agent 3 to the city that the octolings called home. The Cliffside gave a wonderful view over the city. He could see all types of buildings from various sizes. It looked beautiful from up here. He never had been so high up before without super jumping.

"Whoa…" Maize forced out from his mouth. Inkopolis was a great place, though he never had really ventured much outside of it. He had only been to Octo Valley at most when Captain Cuttlefish recruited him as an agent. Maize was hoping things would be fine. He was here on a mission; saving the octoling's sister was his main priority, but Maize was making a mental note to come here sometime for a personal vacation.

"Stay close to me," the octoling insisted. Maize nodded, doing so. There was a path to their left that led downwards. He and Octorina began to follow along. The night looked pretty nice. They weren't that close to Mollusk Metropolis, so it was easy to see the stars that were shining bright in the sky. There was also a lot of trees around during the walk, revealing that Mollusk Metropolis had some forests around it.

"So, Octoronia, how are we going to get me a disguise?" Maize questioned, wanting to know how they would find him a method for him to go unnoticed. She yawned, looking around. The forest appeared quite empty but had a linear path to get to the city.

"Well, we can get you clothes easily. It's the matter of hiding your tentacles, that's the bigger problem," Octoronia claimed, but then he chuckled at that.

"It's not that hard. Just find me a hat and we'll be set," Maize reassured. However the two abruptly came to a stop when she quit walking and put a hand in front of him to stop him. He wondered if something was wrong, but then he began to hear voices.

"Quick, hide!" Octoronia urgently whispered. Maize looked around, the best place available was a fallen tree that appeared to have been torn down from a heavy storm. He hopped over it and laid down on his stomach, hiding beside it, thankful for how big the fallen tree was.

Octoronia began to see two other octolings approaching. They both were boys the same age as her, and they had different colored tentacles for hair. One was pink and the other was red. One was wearing a light blue shirt that had a shine sprite, while the other wore a dark green shirt that had three golden yellow triangles depicting one large triforce. Only one of them was wearing goggles and the other was wearing a black helmet.

"Uh, ma'am, why are you out here so late?" one of the boys quirked. It was worrying, as not many came out here this late. The forest outside of Mollusk Metropolis got creepier each passing hour of the night, but no one had an idea why.

"Huh?! Oh, uh… I was a little lost, but don't worry, I'm fine now!" Octoronia nervously responded. Maize peeked from behind his hiding place to see the scene before them. The two octoling boys looked at each other, shrugging it off and continuing their walk. However, his phone began ringing with the light ringtone. Maize bit his lip, recognizing the ringtone he had set for the Squid Sisters. He took cover back behind his hiding place. He had just gained the two civilian octopuses' attention.

"Did you hear that?" one of the boys asked the other while approaching the fallen tree where they heard the noise come from.

"I'unno, but that sounded really crisp!" the other boy hummed, having been drawn by the ringtone. Maize was about to get caught. Octoronia gulped. She had to help him out, since she needed his help. She did the first thing she could think of. She grabbed a fallen tree branch that was big in size, and then she swung, hitting one of the octoling boys in the back of the head and knocking them out instantly. The boy fell, slumping to the ground.

"Wh-whoa! What are you doing, you crazy kraken!?" the other octoling boy screamed in fear before she bashed his forehead, rendering him unconscious. Maize had heard the fight for the brief moment. He emerged from his hiding spot to see the two octoling boys out cold, one against the fallen tree and the other face first on the ground.

"Wow. Nice work," Maize gave a thumbs up. Octoronia dropped the branch, feeling guilty for having done that. They seemed like such nice octopi, too. He pulled out his cellphone and turned it off, not wanting that to happen again. That was too close for comfort. He was aware how rude it was to ignore phone calls.

"Well… we found a disguise for you," she said. He looked down at the two unconscious octolings. The inkling's instincts initially were against even remotely consider stealing from others who were asleep, but they could not pass up an opportunity that was perfect for them. He groaned, beginning to trade clothes with the octoling boys behind the privacy of some brush.

"Looking good!" Octoronia told Maize, seeing him. He was now wearing a black helmet that was hiding his tentacles within it and the light blue shirt with the shine sprite on it. Maize felt more embarrassed about it, but trading clothes with the octoling that was out cold was fun in a sense.

"Oh! Right here," Octoronia reached down and removed the goggles from the other octopi, handing them to the squid boy.

"Please tell me these work like replacement glasses," Maize groaned while removing his glasses. He pocketed them, letting her slip the goggles onto his face. His vision was quite blurry until she put the goggles on them. They fixed his eye sight somewhat. Now everything in short range looked perfectly fine.

"They should, but you're gonna be lacking in some of that 20-20 vision," Octoronia apologized, but being able to see nearby surroundings was better than seeing nothing at all.

"It's fine. Let's just get going," Maize nodded. The octoling and the disguised inkling headed to Mollusk Metropolis. Being close and each step made the squid all the more excited.

They finally arrived within Mollusk Metropolis. Maize entered alongside Octoronia. The buildings here stretched around the both of them. There was nature everywhere here. Tree roots were expanding all over the sidewalks and every building, whether shop, home or apartment was covered in vines, moss and sometimes flowers. It appeared that the octolings didn't care about that, and they allowed nature to do what it wanted and just worked with it. Maize found it quite beautiful, like a city turning into a literal jungle. There were quite a lot of octolings around as well who were enjoying the night.

"So where are we heading?" Maize asked, wondering where Octoronia's sister was being held captive. She pointed to the left road of an intersection. There was not any cars as far as Maize could see so far, allowing to assume that almost every octoling here was a pedestrian to live up to its natural atmosphere.

"We need to get weapons first. I should have enough coins on my card to cover it," Octoronia stated. Maize was learning a lot from this whole experience, though he was not expecting the octolings to use coin cards as well. He did not argue with her, letting her lead the way, aware that the right equipment can make any job or mission easier. Mollusk Metropolis was something he never expected to see at all in his life, but it was great to be in a new environment, even if the circumstances were not so good. He wondered if the octolings had different ink-based weapons, too. He was eager to peruse the shop to find out. All they had to do was prepare with weapons so they could save Octoronia's sister.


	13. Breaking In

**Authors Note: Hi all, I just thought I'd say I'm glad you guys love this fic so far! But I wanted to ask, if you wanted me to make the updates not daily and instead making updates every other day. I just want some feedback on this.**

Maize had followed Octoronia for a short time through Mollusk Metropolis. So far from what he could see, this city had no cars at all in it. Nature was blooming everywhere, and it was just beautiful. He wondered where they were going until they came to a stop.

"Ah, the shop's over there," the female octoling giggled, sounding all too eager to go into that store. They both saw a small building with a sign dangling outside that read "Catfish Baits". That did not sound too appealing for a store that supposedly sold weapons. They stepped inside the shop, which was somewhat empty, but there was someone here.

"Evenin' there, octos. Welcome to my humble store," a deep calm voice greeted them. Maize could see an anthropomorphic catfish standing behind and polishing the counter, and he appeared very obese. He had two long whiskers on his face and was wearing a red vest with a black coat on top of that.

"Hi there, Catty! How are you holding up?" Octoronia greeted the store owner called Catty. He came off as a lot more intimidating to the disguised inkling. His octoling friend treated the merchant as if they had known each other for a long time. He guessed that this was just her preferred weapons shop.

"Business has been slower than a scuttlecrab in a mud pit, darlin'. But the tide changes with the river's flow," Catty answered. It made her giggle in glee at hearing his analogy. She pulled out her coin card that had a red color to it.

"Me and my friend want to get some weapons," Octoronia claimed, Maize nodding in agreement. The weapons shop owner looked toward the disguised inkling with a questionable look.

"Darlin', I ain't the type of fish to turn down business, but'cha tiny friend there sure doesn't seem crisp at all," Catty retorted, criticizing Maize. He felt a little cut by the words that he had been declared not even remotely fresh here.

"Hey! He's the crispest person I've ever met! We really need these!" Octoronia responded angrily at the wild accusation. The fat catfish appeared unfazed by her fury. He was twice her size and probably four times an average octoling's weight.

"H-hey, octo, calm down," Maize insisted, not wanting her to dive over the counter in some desperate attempt to thieve the weaponry. He appreciated the compliment from her at least but he was not ashamed to tell the truth that he was not even that fresh in Inkopolis. There was no such thing as easy achievements.

"Mhm…. lemme see your hand, shrimp," Catty requested. Maize now was afraid to be even near that big mouthed shopkeeper. It felt like at any second, they were both going to be eaten, but he did his best to stay calm and approached the counter, presenting his hand to the oversized catfish. Octoronia stood aside, impatiently tapping her foot.

"Y'see, my father always told me that'cha can always tell how someone is by simply lookin' at their hand," Catty claimed while tilting, looking at the palm and each individual finger and the back of his hand. Maize did not feel that comfortable by this.

"Th-that's a handy trait in your family, I bet," Maize chuckled nervously as his hand got let go for some reason. The catfish smirked.

"Well darlin', you ain't wrong 'bout this one here. Those hands bear nothing but the looks of a hard worker, and an honest person, s'rare to find someone crisp in that way," Catty declared. Octoronia felt relieved, though Maize was only hoping that he was crisp enough to actually see the better weaponry. They watched the shopkeeper slide a panel on the counter open before hitting a button, which opened up part of the counter in front of the two. There was a small screen within it displaying all sorts of weapons.

"Ohhh! I always love seeing the touch screen," Octoronia said. It was always magical in a sense.

"Pick your weapons from'ere, young'uns. Touch what ya want," Catty explained how it worked. Maize was sliding through the weapons stock. He had a decent amount available to him, but he had never seen any of the ink based weaponry in here. The Mollusk Metropolis had its own line of designs and unique traits that made him all too excited to try one.

"I'll go with this, I guess," Maize tapped the screen of a charger based weapon named the Bird's Grasp. It was purple in colour, and its statistics showed decent range and power. He then selected that he also wanted a yellow colored ink tank to go with it. Octoronia had picked a standard slather blaster a greyish tool that had a paint job on it to mimic a menacing face, and she requested a pink ink tank for it.

"Comin' right up," Catty pulled out the weapons they requested and handed them over. Octoronia smiled, handing the coin card over, letting him swipe it through a machine to get the payment. He returned it the card over afterwards, and he pulled out two empty ink tanks that were both filled with the colors they wanted. They both tossed the ink tanks onto their backs.

"Thanks a lot. I've never held a charger like this," Maize said, looking down at it. A simple laser pointer was how this weapon was aimed. It was impressive quality.

"Well, I'unno if I've ever seen an inkling with this tech in the first place," the catfish stated. That comment stunned them both. They froze in place. The disguised Maize did not know what to do now, and judging by the look on the octoling's face, neither did she.

"I ain't got a single clue why you're here, but'cha seem trustworthy enough," Catty reassured. The secret was safe with him. He laughed, enjoying the reaction he gained from them.

"Th-thank you. We'll be leaving now," Octoronia bowed before she grabbed Agent 3's hand and rushed out the door. The shop's bell jingled loudly as they left the catfish to go back to his cleaning.

"Okay, now we just gotta save your sister. You said you know where they took her?" Maize requested her to lead the way. Mollusk Metropolis seemed easy to get lost in, but that might be the lack of knowing the layout of the area.

"Near east Barnacle Street. It's only a couple of miles from here," Octoronia pointed to the right direction. Now they were armed and ready to go. Maize followed behind the octoling, somewhat afraid of how this would go. He was going in blind with minimal knowledge what the special ability of his new charger was.

It had taken two and a half hours for them to arrive to their destination, and Maize felt absolutely drained. The octoling girl was completely wrong with it being a couple of miles away east. Barnacle Street was a good ten miles from the weapons shop. Thankfully they had some shortcuts to use through the streets to get there faster.

"Here we are…" Octoronia muttered. They both stood in front of a warehouse storage area, and frankly it came off as disturbing, despite how nature was especially blooming here. The two approached the fifth warehouse from the rear. The octoling insisted they stay quiet and go slowly. Once they got behind the brick wall for cover, the octoling girl got her weapon ready.

"So what should I expect in there?" Maize questioned. There was one big problem here, that he couldn't allow himself to be splattered here, or as the octolings would call it, slathered. If he did get hit enough by an enemies' ink, he would end up all the way back in Inkopolis, since he doubted the Mollusk Metropolis medical facilities had an inkling of care for inklings in mind.

"Err… well, there were a lot of others that are going to compete in this invention contest. I don't know how many there will be," Octoronia nervously responded. When spoken aloud, she was beginning to lose her courage quickly. The more missions Maize tackled, the more he was starting to notice how much he relied on his personal luck. Promises involved or not, he did not plan to leave as a failure.

"I'm sure there isn't that many octolings in there. What does your sister look like?" the yellow inkling asked, just so he would not wind up accidentally splatting Octoronia's sibling. He was attaching the ink tank to his charger, hoping that not many octolings were in there, otherwise literally half the competitors in this invention competition had broken into her workshop, burnt her blueprints and kidnapped her sister, just to get an advantage in the contest.

"You can't miss her! She sticks out no matter what. But if you find her, be careful. She has a problem controlling her mood," Octoronia warned. At least he now had that information, but that sounded semi-useful. Maize was planning on just finding the first octoling that was young and not actively going to shoot back. With that settled, he put his hands together.

"Come on, let's get in there," Maize was ready when she was. Octoronia smiled, appreciative of that straight forward confidence he had. She put her foot in his hands, and he boosted her up to the top of the brick wall. Once atop it, she reached her hand down toward him. He grabbed on, being pulled up on top as well. They both landed on the other side briefly after.

"I'll go to the side. You start this off," Octoronia spoke the first plan in mind.

"Better than what I had in mind," Maize nodded, letting her go off to get to the side of the warehouse. The windows were high up, but a few were open. A few piles of wooden crates lay nearby that had been thrown out. They looked brittle but better than nothing. The yellow inkling, after observing it all, began climbing up one box at a time, getting higher and higher until he got to the fourth one. He peeked up through the window.

"I wish I could use my glasses," Maize muttered to himself. He only was able to see a short distance with these goggles. Peeking into the window instantly, his bravery took another bashing. Octolings were everywhere in the warehouse, up to seven from what he could see. They all were working on their own inventions, varying in size and intimidation.

"Alright, Maize. Captain Cuttlefish taught you how to be smart when outnumbered… I think," Maize spoke to himself, trying to calm himself down. Captain Cuttlefish had taught him a lot of stuff when he became an agent, but that was for situations that were not even remotely possible.

Maize took in a deep breath, aiming his charger, letting an exhale. He had to draw attention to start with, but so far he saw no one that stuck out heavily, assuming that Octoronia's sister was in another room of the warehouse. The octolings in there were heavily armed. This was like some insane workshop, hence tools lying carelessly around, but every octoling looked quite happy with this hangout. He squeezed the trigger on the charger, letting it fully charge.

"Here we go," the inkling bit his lip, releasing the trigger, watching a strong burst of yellow ink spray out and blast one of the octolings in the chest, knocking them to the floor. The blast splattered into a puddle of the bright ink. This charger was pretty good so far.

"Another idiot trying to break in?!" one of the many octolings growled. Maize wondered how many had tried to break in before him. He saw her reach over to the table that had some odd round objects on them. He aimed his charger, but was not able to charge it fast enough. The enemy octoling girl threw a bouncy ball that hit the floor and bounced onto the wall, beneath the window Maize was on.

"What the splat-!?" Maize got startled, feeling the wall break apart. The ball was letting out small explosions of ink at a huge pressure. The wall collapsed, Maize screaming as he fell off his crates that were breaking beneath him. The strange ink bomb was causing a lot of damage and creating a good dust cloud with the debris. Agent 3 knew this was not going to be easy. Octoronia heard the noise from outside, nervously gripping her weapon, planning to attack. The two had to do their best from here on against the other octolings.


	14. Rescue

Maize was now stuck hiding behind a stone pillar with a room full of angry octolings shooting ink at him. Things would have been so much smoother if he had been able to stay on the high ground, but all of these inventors had made tech for combat.

"Anytime now, Octoronia…" Maize growled, squeezing the trigger to charge up his charger. He peeked out from his cover and fired a yellow blast of ink quickly, but he missed and wound up getting blasted in the hand by purple ink. It stung horribly on contact. He retracted to his hiding place. At this point the disguised inkling was waiting for them to gang up and corner him.

"Hey! Over here!" Octoronia's voice rung out, having broken in from the front door shortly after hearing the fight begin. She took cover behind one of the many machines around, drawing some of the octolings' attention, much to the inkling's relief.

"Well, time to see the special ability," Maize gulped. He had to put the charger to use and activate it. He pushed the button on the side. The yellow ink around him bubbled, Maize fearing that he might have broken it. He suddenly saw six huge yellow colored tentacles explode from the ink around him that began to block the enemies' ink. It had the teenage squid terrified for half a second.

"He's got a tenta-cade! Get back!" one of the many octolings screamed out. Maize had to swallow his fear. He got up, beginning to move. The tentacles followed, keeping a tightly knit defence around him. It felt great to be well protected. He charged up his weapon and aimed, the tentacle moving aside to let him shoot. He fired the charger, hitting one of the many octolings in the face and instantly splattering them. The tentacles then returned to their usual formation to continue blocking the ink counter attack.

"Lucky. I wish I had that," Octoronia muttered to herself, getting up from her cover and shooting at two of the other octolings that had been trying to pin her down. She got one with her pink ink, splattering them. Maize had been trying to do his best to get to a better location, when the tenta-cade had come to an end, and the tentacles retracted into the ink where they came from.

"What is with my luck lately?!" Maize dove to the right, ducking under another one of those crazy grenades that the inventor octolings had created. It exploded into a big storm of ink, tearing apart another good bit of the warehouse. Maize had gotten safely by an open door which seemed to lead to another part of the warehouse. He hated to leave his octoling friend to fend for herself, but he had to find her sister. Maybe then they could escape quicker. The inkling got up and made his way into the doorway, which took him to a small corridor.

"Jeez… what could they be storing in here?" Maize asked. He really would rather not know, but he had to search the four doors. He hoped that there would not be any more octolings hiding back here. He had to be cautious and not get ambushed. Opening the first of the heavy doors, the yellow squid saw weird machines and a few trapped animals in cages.

"Why am I not surprised?" he wondered before closing the door back since he saw no young octoling in there. The second door he opened revealed an odd line of ink colors. Judging from what he could see on a chalkboard, someone was trying to make new colors to be used. He closed that door.

"How hard is it to find a five year old girl?" Maize groaned. The third door he opened appeared to be a big dark room. He flicked on the light switch. There was one medium sized cardboard box, but with something within it that he recognized.

"Hey! I haven't seen one of these in a while," the disguised inkling smiled, pulling out one of the few objects in the box. It was a baby zapfish doll that had a hat on it. The zapfish doll appeared to be stitched together with a lot of time and care. Maize recognized them easily because he had gathered a lot when Captain Cuttlefish was training him. The captain himself was the one who stitched these together.

Maize's attention however got drawn by something mechanical that was resting beside the box. He crouched down to give it a closer inspection. It seemed to be a robotic octoling. The tentacles it had for hair were done up into a long loose style that ran down the back of the machine. It was wearing a pink shirt that had various colored stripes on it.

"I've never seen a robot before," Maize admitted. Technically it was not the first time he had seen a robot, but this one was a full-fledged machine. It appeared to be holding one of the baby zapfish dolls very close to its chest. He reached toward it, trying to look at some white light that was coming from under the shirt behind the doll.

"Gah!" Maize got startled, feeling the gloved hand of the machine grab his arm. He threw himself backwards, landing onto the floor. The robotic octoling stood up and began to take steps toward him. That white light changed to a yellow, the baby zapfish doll being kept in its one hand.

"Are you in need of assistance?" a light voice chimed. The robot octoling was speaking to him. Maize could not believe what was happening before him. He tried to get over the shock of the moment, getting off the floor.

"Yeah. I got maybe five more minutes before tons of smart octolings come in here and splat… I mean slather me. Have you seen a young octoling? She's five years old," Maize asked from the robot, remember the information he got from Octoronia.

"I am five years old. However, I have no recollection of anyone else here. I have been locked within here for approximately twenty-nine hours and fifty-eight minutes," the robot explained. The yellow squid stared for a brief moment before the idea suddenly struck his mind. Octoronia had told him that her sister stuck out in a crowd, and considering she was an inventor, it only led to one real conclusion.

"You're Octoronias sis? Wow…! I wish my sister had been a robot," Maize stated, trying his best to not wind up reminiscing accidentally when he saw that yellow light change to red. He had a bad feeling wash over him. The robot octoling's eyes changed to a furious appearance.

"I am not just a robot! I am E.C.O.! Say it with me; E.C.O.!" ECO angrily introduced herself. Maize felt that she could rip him apart in a second. Octoronia was not kidding when she warned about the hard to control mood.

"So-sorry! Sorry! …I'm Maize of the Special Squid Services. Your sister contacted us after your kidnapping," Maize exclaimed. He watched the red light change to green. His words appeared to make the robotic octoling very happy.

"Really? Yay! Big sis did not forget me!" ECO spun around in glee, cherishing the baby zapfish doll. For a robot, she sure was extremely emotional. Maize heard the sounds of footsteps coming. Now his fear had returned.

"I think he went in here!" one voice rung out. Maize thought he heard two sets of footsteps, and he was cornered. He didn't know if ECO was of any use when it came to splatting others, and his charger was not meant to be a closed ranged weapon. He had not even the chance to use the special ability again for a long time. One moment later, he suddenly had an idea.

"I don't see him!" one octoling girl called out, upon entering the room. ECO was standing in the same place, squeezing the zapfish plush toy. The light on her chest now had become blue.

"At least the prisoner's still here," another octoling said while stepping beside her. They both appeared irritated. All the damage that had occurred in the main warehouse, and the fight still going on in there, had done nothing but push their patience.

"You really need to quit reactivating yourself" the octoling girl claimed as she approached ECO. The robot took a step back fearfully. The box full of zapfish suddenly moved a little. Maize had taken the chance with his environment and turned into his squid form. He was hiding within the box of toys. He popped up when the two octolings were separated, sending the zapfish toys flying. His charger fully charged, he let go of the trigger, watching it fire a burst of yellow ink and splattering the male octoling instantly.

"Wha-?! You sneaky urchin!" the other octoling aimed her weapon at him. She suddenly got bashed in the back of the head. ECO had easily taken advantage of the distraction with one strong punch. They now had the upper hand on the situation.

"Good work! Can you use one of these?" Maize quirked, ECO coming over, reluctantly resting down the zapfish doll. She picked up the ink tank on the ground and tossed it over her shoulder, and then grabbed the small slather blaster.

"My reaction systems are not fine-tuned, but I will do my best," ECO nodded. If he didn't know she was a robot, he would swear he was talking to any other regular octoling. She seemed saddened to be forced to leave the zapfish doll behind as the two made their way out of the storage area back into the hall, closing the door behind them.

"Wow!" Maize gasped, seeing the amount of various colored ink everywhere. There was probably only four octolings, but among them was Octoronia who was stuck lying by the wall out cold. The other inventors that were left had been waiting for the disguised inkling to reappear after they had dealt with her. ECO's light changed to red once again.

"You go left! I'll go right!" the yellow squid ordered. The robot thankfully listened and complied. They both took their position, despite the octolings not letting up their attempts to attack them. Maize prepared his charger, aiming for the first octoling he saw, opening fire and splattering them. He thankfully was very accurate.

"I do not like this situation," ECO said as she peeked around the corner, firing her blaster and slathering another octoling, watching them fall over exploding into a small ink puddle. The robot had put her trust into Maize mostly because he had saved her and knew her sister. The last two octolings seemed to realize they were now alone, the two of them dropping their weapons and running for the nearest exit.

"I think we're all clear," Maize sighed in relief, his ink tank near empty. The warehouse and most of its inventions were coated in various colored ink. ECO dropped her weapon and ink tank, going over to her sibling, her red light changing to blue. She was greatly concerned. Maize followed the robot and kneeled down to Octoronia.

"Hey, Octoronia, time to get up. We're done here," Maize lifted up her goggles to her forehead, shaking her some. Octoronia blinked, groaning as her eyes opened slowly.

"Oh… he-hey, Maize. Sorry… one of those jerks snuck up on me and bopped me," Octoronia apologized before she looked to the robot octoling beside her. Just that very presence brought a bright smile to her face. The mechanical octoling's light went from blue to green.

"ECO! Oh my gosh, you had me so worried!" she tackled the robot, almost knocking her to the floor. Maize was happy to see the scene before him. They were not even related remotely, yet they looked like the perfect average siblings. He never knew machines could interact like this or share such emotions, but he welcomed it. The two of them stood up holding one another's hand.

"Maize, meet my sister, ECO. The first Emotional Cortex Octoling," Octoronia introduced them to each other very late. The yellow squid figured that was where the robot's name came from. The acronym for ECO sounded quite nice. He presumed that the older sibling had created the robot and given her complex emotions years ago. It was almost like ECO was actually a living being.

"Y'know, you could have told me your sister was a robot before we came here. I could have missed her," Maize said, thankful things had worked out in the end. The inventor octopus looked embarrassed.

"What can I say? I made her, but I always forget her true form," she giggled shyly, her younger sister bowing.

"Thank you, Mister Maize. I shall register you as a dear friend," ECO declared. He really had no idea how to feel about that, but he just let her do what she wanted. He suddenly remembered something, quickly running back to the other room of the warehouse, leaving the two octoling sisters confused. It took him a moment or two for him to come back.

"Here! I know you liked it a lot," Maize stated, presenting the baby zapfish doll. ECO smiled, taking it from him and hugging it tightly to her chest. That doll had been a great comfort while being held hostage. Captain Cuttlefish had made two of those dolls every time Callie and Marie got upset when they were very young. It was how he cheered them up, so there was a plentiful supply of them.

"I asked you of a lot, Maize. And I'm sorry about that. The Special Squid Service is really great! You inklings are really nice, but you personally are crisp… I-I mean fresh," Octoronia corrected herself toward the end of her sentence. The yellow squid gave a thumbs up.

"A promise is a promise, and I don't plan to break any as long as I can help it," Maize chuckled. Then Octoronia removed the goggles from her head and handed them over to him.

"Keep those as a gift, and the weapon, too. If you ever get bored, come visit us. Mollusk Metropolis might not look it, but it's pretty lively during the day!" Octoronia insisted he take her goggles as a reward. A souvenir, even. It was nice since the ones he wore now had gotten messed up during that fight. He took the damaged goggles off his face, before putting the functional ones on. He planned on keeping the charger, too.

"Thanks. I'm not the leader of the Special Squid Services, but… if anything, if you two think you can handle it… we'd love to have you two as agents," Maize offered. Although it was a rather tacked on question, he felt he would love to have people able to help Mollusk Metropolis. The two octopuses took a moment to think on it.

"To repay you… consider it done! Just contact us whenever you need to, and we'll help," Octoronia gave a thumbs up, ECO not minding the agreement. From there, they would become unofficially Agents 4 and 5. Hopefully, they would be able to help the octolings who needed the assistance, since Maize and his fellow agents were not the convenient option when required.

"I will! …well, you take care, you two," Maize bid them farewell. With that, the three separated. ECO and Octoronia had given him quite the nice farewell, but now the yellow squid had to make his way out of Mollusk Metropolis. He found it an interesting experience and hoped to return eventually. When Maize pulled out his cellphone, he then noticed that it was now two at midnight. It was a dramatic change in time, but he knew time flied when he was busy. But one thing that concerned him was that he had so many missed text messages and phone calls that he couldn't begin to count, all from the Squid Sisters. Maize just assumed they had been worried about him. Without reading or listening to any of them, he cleared all the texts and calls, pocketing the phone. He would see them both soon, anyway. Maize continued the long trek out of Mollusk Metropolis.


	15. Threat

Maize had made it back to Octo Valley after his visit to Mollusk Metropolis. He just wished it could have been under a lighter circumstance, but he was glad to have learnt of the city's existence and made some agents able to help within Mollusk Metropolis, but he thought it would be best to not inform Captain Cuttlefish of this to avoid a lengthy explanation.

"Cap'n! I'm back!" Maize called out, approaching the old squid's usual spot, but there was no one here beyond the snow globe that was holding DJ Octavio within it. He picked up his splatterscope and tossed it onto his back alongside the octoling charger he had.

"Hey, y'know where the cap'n went?" Maize asked. No response, just a very angry glare. He chuckled lightly, reaching down for the small blanket on the floor and tossing it back on top of the snow globe of a prison. He heard the furious tapping of the glass once more.

"Guess I'll go home," Maize shrugged. The captain was gone and it was nearing three in the morning now. He took the goggles off his face and pulled his glasses out of his pocket, fixing them on his face. He threw the helmet away, letting his tentacles free once more. He had to wear the other clothing that he had taken from those octolings earlier that night, but he doubted anyone would notice that it was octarian clothing. The young inkling began to make his way out of Octo Valley, having to climb back out through the pipe in his squid form to get to the main plaza.

"…whoa," Maize saw a few other workers assembling a couple of stages together with the use of those trucks he stepped up. This meant that Splatfest was going to happen tomorrow night. He was glad to see all the inklings up at this hour, and they sure seemed to be excited over it.

"Maize! Hey, I didn't expect to see you at this hour," he heard, looking up at the upper platform of the stage. It was Mauve, the construction manager. He was surprised to see the purple inkling as well. He jumped down from the stage, landing in front of Agent 3.

"Mauve? What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be working at Hammerhead Bridge?" Maize asked, confused. Construction was construction, but it was odd to see the much more scaled down task at hand.

"Oh! Well I got fired, you see! Part of the bridge collapsed because I was at home sleeping in when it was my turn to be watching over the project, now Hammerhead Bridge is condemned to be only a turf war area for another three months!" Mauve explained. Maize somehow was not surprised by this. Once again the Cursed Bridge had struck again and now was delayed from being completed once more. He knew the Squid Sisters were not going to be happy once they heard about this; the dream of a faster commute to work, once again shattered.

"Err… sorry about that," Maize gave his condolences for the purple inkling losing his job. The construction worker shrugged, uncaring for it.

"Don't be. I'm glad to be away from that stupid bridge. How'd it go with that squishie, by the way?" Mauve replied, wondering if Agent 3 and his friends had been able to help the newborn inkling that had been found in his backyard.

"It went great! He's got a really good mom now," Maize stated with a smile. The two squids continued walking, just conversing while Maize made for the bus stop. They both were a little tired from the long night. They kept talking at the bus stop, but Mauve appeared to have something on his mind.

"Uh by the way… Maize we got a problem. It's a secret and only those involved with the making of Splatfest know," the purple inkling started.

"Is this good secret or bad one?" Maize rubbed his own head.

"The main backers for Splatfest, me and the other construction workers, and I'm sure anyone who has a hand in this got a threatening message," Mauve claimed. There was a threat filed to everyone remotely related to this Splatfest. Maize did not like the sound of this. That meant Callie and Marie had definitely received the same threat. The purple squid presented his cellphone which had a brightly colored case around it.

"If this Splatfest goes on as planned, then it shall go horribly wrong. You and every associate involved have until 5pm to comply, or we shall make sure you all regret making this Splatfest," Maize looked over and read the message, not able to believe it. The look on his face alone described his fury. He was not able to just sit idly by knowing this, especially now that they were on a time limit.

"You think it's a joke?" Mauve asked, though noticed the two chargers on Maize's back. No one ever dual wielded chargers for a reason of lacking accuracy. Maize looked down the dark street, seeing the bus beginning to pull up with a jellyfish driving it.

"Where to?" the driver asked.

"Flounder Heights," Maize told him as he stepped on board. He looked to the construction worker.

"I don't think some squid would waste all their time on a prank like this. Keep working, though. These Splatfests are really important," Maize requested, gaining a salute from Mauve. He was happy to continue working and building to prepare for the Splatfest. At the rate the construction team was going, they would be ready by dawn. The yellow inkling swiped his coin card before taking a seat on the bus, trying to rest and enjoy the ride. He had to talk to Agents 1 and 2, aware that they weren't going to be happy with him visiting at this hour.

At the Squid Sisters apartment, things were normal. Callie and Marie were asleep in their bed. The two shared a room and did it quite well. Half the room had a more erratically brighter pink design to it while the other half had a more calming tone in shades of green. The Squid Sisters were sharing a queen-sized bed. The two were peacefully asleep, until Marie began hearing a familiar crying that woke her up.

"That's the second time tonight…" Marie grumbled, looking at the clock on the nightstand that read a little past four in the morning. She was wearing green polka dotted pyjamas. Her tentacles were untied and running down her back, yet were nowhere near as long as Callie's were.

"Hey, Bondi is up again," Marie tried to inform her slumbering cousin who already started waking up. She rubbed her head sorely, wearing pink pyjamas that had white stripes going from shoulder to shoulder.

"At least he sleeps through most of the night," Callie tried to look at this positively. Most squishies did not sleep longer than a few hours each night. Only two wakeups was a good start for one of the first nights. The squishie was living with his new adoptive mother, Agent 1, and so far she had been doing her best with the help of her cousin.

"Now if only optimism gave me my energy back," Marie joked, her head hitting the pillow. Her cousin got up out of bed and headed out of the room, her tentacles dragging on the floor behind her. The crying was still going on. Walking through the hallway, she went to the room neighbouring their own, turning on the small lamp that was by the dresser. The room used to be a storage room that the Squid Sisters had labelled the fresh room. In retrospective they could have just titled their walk in closet for the same effect. Now this room was a regular nursery.

"What's the matter Bondi?" Callie hummed, seeing the upset squishie lying in his crib, tears still in his eyes. She picked up the blue squishie, cradling him into her arms. The crying became toned down into a whimpering and sniffling. Feeling his adoptive mother's touch soothed him a lot.

"Was it a bad dream? Don't worry. Me, Uncle Maize and your auntie Marie will never let anything bad happen to you," Callie spoke to the squishie in her joyful tone. The crying began to come to an end. Bondi was calming down. The Squid Sister felt a lot of pride ever since she had agreed to be his mother. Adopted or not, she had grown quite attached to the squishie. It all felt so natural.

"Hm?" Callie quirked, hearing the sound of knocking at the front door and her cousin's frustrated groan in being prevented from sleeping. Callie stepped back out to the living room, carrying Bondi. Marie was already nearing the front door. Judd was still asleep on the couch. He was certainly a deep sleeper.

"Looks like someone finally got our messages," Marie said while looking through the peephole. Maize was standing outside their door. The white squid opened the door, letting their dear friend step inside.

"Hi, Callie. Hey, Marie. Oh, and hi, Bondi," Maize greeted them all, glad the Squid Sisters were already awake. He still had to get used to seeing Callie as a mother now, even if it had not even been a week yet. She seemed to be doing a great job so far.

"Yeah, Maize. You sure know the worst good timing," Marie greeted the blonde inkling. He really had no idea how to interpret that, brushing that comment aside. He had expected the captain to be here, but surprisingly he was not.

"I found out what was going on with the Splatfest. Sorry for ignoring your calls. I had a mission," Maize apologized, presuming that they had been trying to get in contact with him to try and inform him of the incident way sooner. He felt guilty about having to ignore these messages.

"It's fine. I'm sure we're worrying over nothing," Callie smiled, having thought that the worst thing this so-called threat would turn out to be is just some inklings using their weapons at the Splatfest. Her main care was more with Bondi than anything.

"And I'm sure we're not. No squid would specifically find our numbers to text us a scary message, as well as the company sponsors," Marie argued. She was more angered by this than she let on, mainly because the two cousins were threatened when they had to sing all the way through Splatfest as entertainment. These Splatfests were major tourist attractions and tended to increase turf wars by a huge amount. It was hard to imagine any squid that could hate the fun of spraying ink everywhere, let alone hating Splatfest itself.

"Joke or not, it's seriously causing problems. We need to figure out who did this and hopefully before the Splatfest begins," Maize refocused the matter, not wanting them to argue. Bondi was beginning to fall back asleep in his adoptive mother's arms. The Squid Sisters noticed the extra charger their close friend had next to his splatterscope.

"Where did you get that?" Marie asked. Maize looked at the octoling charger and that shine sprite shirt he had. She never had seen that before. He did not want to inform them of his little trip to Mollusk Metropolis, not sure how they would react. He didn't want them to learn he had made an octoling and a robot Agents 4 and 5 unofficially.

"It's a long story, but let's just say never make bets on scuttlecrab races," the yellow squid nervously answered with the first lie in mind. His friends looked to one another, hoping that he had not gotten some form of gambling habit when he already was near broke to begin with.

"Anyway! We need a plan," Maize spoke, but then looked slightly embarrassed.

"Do… either of you have one?" he added, having no ideas in mind. This was a situation that he would prefer not to rely on his luck to help with. Callie was rubbing her son's head while he began to fall back asleep.

"We already contacted Tentatek Manufactory. They're trying to trace the source of the message. We're supposed to meet them tomorrow to hear the results," Marie claimed. She and Callie had already taken steps toward trying to solve this mission that had been forced upon them. Maize seemed to react oddly to the mention of the company, quickly regaining his composure.

"You have no idea how good it is to hear we're off to a good start for once," Maize chuckled. He had been so used to having the odds stacked against him all the time on each mission that it was too ridiculous.

"Having connections makes things easier," Callie claimed, heading back to the nursery to put her squishie back in his crib to let him enjoy what was left of the night.

"You mind if I crash on the couch? I guess I got too eager and came here early," Maize apologized. Marie sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I'll set it up for you," she nodded, not having any objections to letting her good friend take a place on the couch. The three had to work together and help each other out as much as possible to handle these missions with ease. Maize still was waiting for the 'with ease' part to happen. He smiled, going to help Marie get the spare blankets and pillows. Maize hoped things would work out. Whoever was out to ruin this Splatfest, either hated the Cars vs Planes theme, or was just a lunatic against Splatfest in general.


	16. Plans

Maize had slept the last few hours of the night quite peacefully, even if he had to share the couch with Judd. The young inkling was snoozing away for the early hours of the morning on the Squid Sisters' couch, his chargers lying nearby. He felt a hand on his back that was trying to shake him to wake him up.

"Ooh… I really need to quit staying out late," Maize groaned. His head was aching and his body felt like it was fighting against him. He looked up to see Callie standing before him. She was wearing her usual favourite disguise outfit. He reached over to the coffee table, grabbing his glasses and putting them on.

"How'd you sleep?" the black inkling quirked. Her blonde friend smiled lightly as he began to move the blankets off himself. He presumed Judd was off going to help get ready for the Splatfest this afternoon.

"Better than I have in a while! …I wish I had an imported sofa," Maize admitted. That couch was softer and better than his bed by a long shot. Then again he did get his mattress from Spyke, and for free. The more he thought about it, the more worried he became since that urchin never gave anything away for free.

"You look so cute when you're jealous!" Callie claimed, clapping her hands together. It was pretty obvious how jealous he was of the lap of luxury that his close friends had entirely to themselves almost for being rich. But at least the Squid Sisters did not act as snobby and rude as most millionaires were. He was glad they had their heads on straight in that sense anyway.

"Thanks… I think," Maize chuckled in response. He then saw Marie enter into the hallway stretching. He noted that neither had the squishie with them, which worried him.

"Is Bondi still asleep?" the yellow inkling quirked. The three were planning on investigating the threat that was anonymously made toward the Splatfest and everyone involved. He was more confused why those two were not in their usual disguises for today.

"No, squiddo, I'm here," he heard, seeing Captain Cuttlefish coming from the kitchen, holding Bondi in one arm. The blue squishie was happily drinking a bottle of formula. Maize did not expect him to be here, but he guessed that someone needed to watch the newborn squid, and who better than the great grandsquid himself.

"Oh, hi Cap'n! I got the mission done," Maize saluted nervously, acting more army-like than he normally was. Callie and Marie were personally enjoying watching the terrified performance of his. Their grandpa took a seat on the couch.

"I heard, and great work. But Squiddo, when Callie first told me you gave her a squishie, I wanted to hurl you out the window in your sleep," Captain Cuttlefish stated while rubbing the squishie's stomach. Bondi appeared very content at the moment, having quickly gotten attached to his great grandfather.

"Oh… is that so?" Maize gulped, aware that misunderstanding or not, that was the truth. He remembered by heart that he was the one who had offered Callie the option of adopting the squishie.

"Heheh, yeah, but… this old squid's got no strength to do things spur of the moment anymore, and I'm grateful you all are dedicated to helping out everyone, so I decided to take it easy on you," the old squid explained. Maize looked to the Squid Sisters. Those grins that showing their sharp teeth did nothing but add onto his nervous feeling, but apparently the website as of the last mission had been even receiving more praise. Even though the recent praise had been coming from outside of Inkopolis, it was great, nonetheless. It meant that Octoronia and ECO had already started on their new agent responsibilities.

"Thank you, Cap'n… and I'll talk to you before I think of giving Marie a squishie," Maize joked, only to get smacked in the back of the head by Marie.

"Don't even joke about that! Come on, we're going to be late for our meeting," Marie insisted they had to get going. She did not enjoy the joke as much as he did, since the circumstances for Bondi's adoption were not ideal. Maize rubbed the back of his now sore head, aware they had mentioned last night about the Tentatek Corporation partially expanding their own investigation. They now had to just see if they had any new information. Maize still appeared unsettled about going anywhere near the manufactory.

"Ready when you two are," he nodded in agreement, Callie going over to her son quickly and planting a small kiss on his forehead.

"Mommy will be right back. You be good for grandpa, Bondi," Callie spoke. Captain Cuttlefish was happy to see his grandsquid all grown up like this. It was a new side of hers that he had never witnessed before, and it warmed his heart. Maize grabbed his splatterscope and tossed it over his shoulder, before the three inklings all began to leave the apartment, the door closing loudly behind them. The captain watched them all go before turning his head down to Bondi.

"Now then, squiddo. Let's see if I can't show you a trick or two with sewing," Captain Cuttlefish smiled, getting out of the chair and beginning to head toward the hall, Bondi still happily snug in his arms.

"So who are we meeting with?" Maize asked as the three were heading into the elevator. He hit a button to take them to the ground floor. The disguised agents still seemed to share similar lacking energy like him.

"Tentatek's CEO. She wanted to meet up with us and talk about what her side of investigating had turned up," Callie exclaimed. Hearing about the CEO sent an unsure look on the yellow inkling's face, something that he did not hide well at all. The Squid Sisters looked to one another for a brief moment.

"Hey, uh, if you have a problem with Tentatek, you can wait outside during the meeting," Marie suggested worriedly, but she understood if he hated that brand of products immensely. Tentatek was fine, but there just were those squids who hated a certain line of weaponry and gear.

"N-no, this is a mission for the Special Squid Services, and last time I checked, I am an agent for it," Maize tried to jokingly brush past the realization that had previously caught him off guard. Callie hated to have him so worked up before they had even discovered if this was a prank or not. She hoped it was a mere prank, but sometimes it was best to prepare for the worst.

"Just try and relax and let us do the talking, please?" Callie requested of him. Any information they could get from the CEO would be great for a start to this investigation. The yellow squid was happy hearing that the two of them would start interrogating squids from now on for missions. That was becoming quite a pain for the inklings in general.

When they stepped outside, Maize could see a taxi there, having parked and been awaiting for the three of them. Marie had called it in advance to save them a long time walking. She had no plans on walking twenty miles today just to meet up with one person who might not even have any information to share to begin with. They climbed into the back.

"Where to?" the driver tossed their newspaper aside into the passenger seat.

"3921 Eeletric Avenue," Marie answered. The taxi driver put his foot on the gas, beginning to drive off. The yellow inkling felt a lot better, knowing he could relax since they had a taxi for once. The exercise for his legs was great, but he was losing nearly all his energy just on the many missions he had lately, from the many walks to meeting some of these troubled squids.

The group had relaxed for the ride for a good while, at least up to one hour. Marie was looking over her phone, checking out all the reviews that had been appearing on Squelp. The positive feedback for the website was quite grand.

"Wow. With this many requests, we may have to start taking on one mission each," Maize said in awe. There were quite a number of requests that had fell in, aware that none of them liked the idea of working alone, considering how insane these tasks tended to get unintentionally.

"That or get more agents," Callie giggled, gaining a smirk from her dear cousin. That pun struck particularly close to Maize. He thought plenty of squids would volunteer to be agents for a blooming website like this, and the only agents they had were ironically octolings.

"Ey! Squids we're here!" the taxi driver exclaimed as they came to a stop. Maize looked out the window, seeing a decently sized building nearby that did nothing but pile onto more of that nervous feeling. He had Marie let the driver swipe her coin card before they climbed out, letting the taxi drive off. The weather was looking good today, perfect for a Splatfest like usual.

"That's where we're supposed to meet her," Callie pointed ahead to a building that had quite a beautiful color design. Maize could see that for himself, which made him feel more nervous than he wanted to be.

"Let's get inside," Callie was eager to go in. She enjoyed seeing these factories, where weapons or clothes were made, and occasionally meeting the CEOs occasionally was a normal thing, since a lot of the corporations invested into the Splatfests. Being the main singers for each competition garnered them quite a few connections and very high up friends.

"Yeah… let's," Maize sighed. That enthusiasm of his was not able to get kicked in. He dreaded meeting the CEO. All he could hope was that maybe he would go unrecognized, but there was not much odds of that happening. The three of them entered the building. The inside looked a lot nicer than the outside, impressively. Quite a few people were lined up, and it looked like job applicants trying to get some form of work.

"We're here for our meeting," Marie told the worker at the front desk who looked absolutely swamped, but he nodded, pointing toward the elevator.

"Fifth floor," he quickly instructed to them.

Maize was glad that even if they were disguised, at least the schedule did not get interrupted for his good friends, but each step toward the elevator made him feel more uneasy. Once in the elevator, he leaned against one wall of it.

"You're not looking well…" Callie worriedly commented. Maize did not mean to make them worry over his well being, but he presumed Marie had been just polite over the matter. This seemed a lot more than simple hatred toward one specific company.

"To be honest, I'm not fine. But I'll get over it," Maize reassured, not wanting Agents 1 and 2 to pay this any mind. The Squid Sisters did not like to initially do this, considering they saw him like a little brother to them. Callie pushed a button to the fifth floor, the elevator's doors closing as it began to slowly go up. For Maize, the atmosphere felt firmly tightened. If his fears were correct, this meeting was going to be long, tiring and annoying.


	17. Unwanted Meeting

The group had made it to the fifth floor and were walking down what felt like an endless corridor, one door after another. It all looked like a floor that would have nothing but meetings and discussions on it. They began to approach the door where their meeting was to be held.

"And you're sure you don't want to wait out here?" Marie repeated the suggestion since Maize had been doing his best to suppress his obvious fears and put on a brave face. He adjusted his glasses.

"I lost that choice when I stepped in here," the yellow inkling claimed with a bead of sweat running down his forehead. Callie shook her head, feeling bad. It was like they had forced him to come along for this meeting. He grabbed the doorknob and reluctantly opened it, the three stepping inside. This office had a general wooden design to it, two leather couches facing one another with a glass table in between them. Beyond it was a desk with a huge window in behind it which the chair was turned around staring out it.

"Hey! We're here," Callie called to the squid in the chair. They saw it spin around, revealing a female red-eyed inkling who had short light blue tentacles for hair with a light pink tinge at the end of them, all done up into a ponytail. She was wearing a purple shirt that had a rainbow of colors in various places randomly across it. The room fell into an awkward silence upon the meeting of Maize and the CEO of Tentatek.

"Maize?" she raised an eyebrow. Now his nervousness was at its limit, and he was regretting not taking the offer to wait outside.

"H-hi, Aero…" Maize sheepishly greeted the female squid. She was Aero, the current CEO of the Tentatek Corporation. She came off as friendly but with a hostile aura at the same time, which certainly was confusing.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Marie asked. It was surprising how many powerful or famous people their good friend knew. She pondered on if he had valuable connections that he kept secret from the Squid Sisters Maize rubbed his eyes under his glasses.

"Yeah. I've known her since I was nine," Maize stated. That was eight years ago. The Tentatek CEO had a bright smile across her face.

"He is also my husband," Aero added. It surprised both of the Squid Sisters. They looked to him, wondering if it was the truth.

"It's… true," he nodded. It indeed was the truth, but he sure did not seem happy. They never had gotten him to discuss this with them. It took a long moment to absorb.

"Oh… well, uh… it's nice to meet you, Aero," Callie said, breaking the awkward atmosphere, but the air felt thick enough to cut with a knife at this point. The two cousins took their seats in one of the leather chairs, Maize staying where he was standing uncomfortable.

"Did your investigation turn up anything?" Marie asked while simultaneously forcing the conversation back on track. The CEO took a seat across from them, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a piece of paper, lying it on the coffee table. It seemed to be a map showing part of Inkopolis with a red x marked on it.

"I hired our companies… err, a personal private investigator, and he wound up tracking matching numbers that sent the text message to these three locations," Aero elaborated, tapping the marks. These places were where the phone that had possibly sent the text was. They had the exact location and the chance to find it. All they had to do now was go there and check out each spot.

"Good! we'll head over and see what this squid is up to," Maize volunteered instantly. His dear friends felt that awkward layer of the conversation return. The white inkling rolled her eyes. If they wanted to get anywhere, they had to get through this conversation and find out what was going on here. There was a lot of this story the Squid Sisters were being left out of.

"Alright. What's the deal with you two? You don't look or act like a married pair," Marie questioned. There was no ring on the blonde squid's hand even, yet Aero had two different rings one on each hand. This topic upset their dear friend emotionally.

"After a year into our marriage, we both realized we weren't happy," Aero begun. Her supposed husband sighed, aware she wanted him to finish the explanation.

"So we made it an open marriage," Maize added, looking depressed by that. The Squid Sisters did not know how to respond. It was a change where both husband and wife were able to keep dating or having affairs with no care or worry about each other getting upset or betrayed.

"Or at least I'd like to say it was a decision we both made," he muttered.

"I don't feel proud to have pressured you like that, Maize, or take advantage of it, but we're both happier now. I'm sure I've got Onyx in my life now, and you have these two lovely…" Aero stopped speaking when Maize punched the wall. She had triggered him deeply by bringing up the name of Onyx, but implying Callie and Marie were just romantic toys was an insult he wasn't going to stand.

"…look, I don't have anyone else. But I'm glad you're happy," Maize sighed in frustration. Callie and Marie knew this situation was going to begin going out of control the longer they let the pseudo couple continue talking. The black inkling took the map.

"Thanks. We'll let you know if we find anything," Marie thanked the CEO before she got up with her cousin, the two motioning Maize that they should be leaving now. The yellow squid calmed himself before heading out the door with his two close friends behind him. Aero stayed in her same spot, looking saddened to see him go, thinking they could catch up later.

"I've never seen you get that angry before, Maize…" Callie commented.

"I have," Marie claimed. She had seen him a lot angrier and less restrained when he met Bondi's father. That was certainly a scene she would not want to witness again no matter what. Just being out of that office made the yellow inkling feel a lot better.

"Sorry… I know I can be scary when I don't mean to be," Maize apologized, though his friends were very understanding on this matter. Neither of them could see themselves tolerating a situation like that either. They reached the elevator, waiting for it to reach their floor.

"Wait… I hate to upset you again, but if you don't like this open marriage so much, why did you do it?" Callie worriedly questioned while they waited. She was indeed worried for his health that and she was confused. Wondering why he did any of this if his marriage was not happy before or after making it an open marriage. Maize hesitated for a moment.

"I had to keep a promise," he then spoke. That was all he could really say in the matter. Callie didn't know what to say about it, neither did Marie, especially over this promise talk. He quickly spoke again.

"Back on subject, I think it'd be best if we split up to check out all three of these places," the yellow inkling recommended since they were on a time limit. If they did not solve this by five in the evening, then they would be forced to try and tackle this so called threat during Splatfest. None of them wanted that, if they could help it. The elevator opened, someone already standing within it.

"Oh? I did not expect you to be here," the squid in the elevator said upon seeing Maize. The person was tall and had black tentacles for hair that were wrapped around his neck, and was wearing a suit. The Squid Sisters had a feeling who this was.

"We were just leaving, Onyx. Aero wanted you," Maize lied. Onyx was the chief of security for the Tentatek Corporation, and practically the second husband to Aero.

"Alright. If you need anything, call me," Onyx handed over a business card to Marie before continuing past them to get to the CEO. The trio just boarded the elevator, hitting a button to go back to the ground floor. They had to hope that they could catch the mysterious squid that sent these threats off guard. It didn't take long for them to arrive back outside.

"You know the drill. First one to turn up anything, call the others," Callie smirked while viewing the map. Maize nodded in agreement, while Marie had a look of uneasiness. She had to trust their decisions to tackle this separately. The three began to head in separate directions to go check out their locations on the map.

Maize walked through the streets. His mind drifted into another area entirely. He thought he had moved on from everything, or at least he wished he had, but all those emotions overwhelmed him once again. He did not even realize how long he had been walking until he started to notice his surroundings change. He saw a small car shopping mall ahead, not what he expected to come to.

"This is the right place… but why here?" Maize wondered aloud. He had not ever been to this mall, because it was horrible. Every kiosk sold cheap items, and the stores within sold flimsy knock off clothing and even weaker weapons. He could never see any squid coming here unless they were very poor.

"Now how am I going to find out who made the threatening text?" another problem presented itself. Maize had no idea what to do now. He adjusted the splatterscope on his back before he pulled out his cellphone.

"Good thing the cap'n made me install these odd apps," Maize smiled. Captain Cuttlefish had taught him that a lot of good tools could be on a phone online or offline, but he was taught never to rely on it unless he had to. He tapped one of the applications which pulled up a number tracker. The teenager hated using this app. Half of them were illegal and had to be acquired through special merchants. How Captain Cuttlefish had so many that he could install for the agents was beyond him or anybody's guess.

"Now just to punch it in… aaaaand there we go!" Maize chuckled to himself. Now his cellphone had pulled up a small map of his surrounding area and was sending out a wave of signals, reporting a red dot within the mall. Maize stepped inside, keeping his eye on his phone, ignoring every merchant he passed by who were begging him to buy something. He hated this place immensely that he didn't wish to spend a single penny on it.

"What?" Maize quirked. He had followed the tracking completely, but he found himself standing in front of a trash can by a small bench. He got an annoyed look across his face.

"The things I do for missions," Agent 3 huffed, pocketing his cellphone. He began to rummage through the garbage. Thankfully it seemed to be fully of plastic cups or tin cans, nothing too dangerous. He finally got a grip on something. Maize pulled his hand out, making a mental note to thoroughly wash it. He had pulled out an old flip phone.

"Wait… this is really old," he quirked, now entirely confused. He opened it and hit one button. The phone turned on without much delay, even if it was old. He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and dialed the number of the threat sender. Sure enough, the flip phone began ringing.

"Oh for the love of… it's a disposable phone!" Maize came to the revolution, when he started to get worried.

"If this is what I found, what did Marie and Callie find?" the yellow inkling fearfully muttered immediately. He sent out two text messages one to each of his friends, both questioning if they were alright. He felt silly for this. They had been trying to keep him calm and well lately, but now he was afraid of them stumbling onto something bad.

"I need that phone back, friend," he suddenly heard behind him, followed by a light smash. Maize turned around. The yellow ink tank he had been carrying on his back was broken, and the ink was pouring out around him. Not one chance to react when he got punched hard in the face, being knocked over. Agent 3 dropped his cellphone and the flip phone that slid nearby. He tried to reach for it, but then his attacker got on top of him, pinning him down and wrapping their fingers around his throat. Maize began to lose his breath fast, trying to punch his assailant off of him, but he was not able to get this to stop. No merchants were nearby to help. He couldn't even see his attacker's face. His vision was beginning to get blurry. He felt like his luck had just run out.

"Don't cry, my friend. When you wake up, you'll feel calm… relaxed… happy," that same voice continued, seeing the tears that were welling in Maize's eyes, perhaps at the fear of dying. Things began to go black for Maize as he slipped away into unconscious, his head hitting the tiled floor. His attacker got off him before going over to the phones on the floor. Maize's cellphone was beeping, indicating the Squid Sisters' responses.

"I'm fine. I turned up a young girl with the same phone number, but now I am stuck dealing with her dad because he thought I was acting shady," Marie's text read. Apparently those that had not heard about it did not really care much for the tagline Special Squid Services.

"So far alright. I turned up an old squid with a similar number. She offered me great cookies but not really any useful info," Callie's text read. The anonymous squid looked over both of these messages before beginning to write their own text to reply.

"Good news. I found out it was a prank made by some brat. Everything is under control. The parents are dealing with them. Go on ahead with the Splatfest," the text they had manufactured read. This assailant was pretending to be Maize now. The attacker pocketed the cellphone, and then picked up the flip phone, raising it up high and then slam dunking it on the floor, breaking it into small pieces. Shortly after, Maize's unconscious body was being dragged along the floor toward the emergency exit of the mall.


	18. Determination

It was around two in the afternoon. The day had dragged on for quite a while, but that always happened when every squid was hyped for Splatfest. No one could wait to fight for their respective teams. Callie and Marie were heading back to their apartment in Flounder Heights and going back home after they had received texts from whom they thought was Maize, telling them that Splatfest was safe now.

"Today has been… interesting," Callie could only say. They had tried talking to their close friend, but had never heard back from him after the first texts they received from him. They were both entering into the elevator. The Squid Sisters could not deny the unusual feeling with how simple that mission was to solve, but learning that Maize was married made today even stranger.

"Yeah, I'll say. I'm just amazed at the things that squid will do for a promise," Marie admitted, finding Maize's strong commitment for his promises insane at this point. Allowing an open marriage when he was not happy in said marriage to begin with seemed crazy to keep going, just because of a promise.

"He wouldn't be Maize if he didn't make promises," the black inkling reminded, having seen a lot of the promises their friend had made in the last few months. He was quite reliable when it came to his words; always out to help others before himself. He was the perfect agent for the Special Squid Services website. He proved that after the three of them had rescued the great zapfish.

"Now if only he wasn't so cheesy," Marie snickered while they were riding the elevator up to their floor. The two could not deny that they would not be the same if Maize had not appeared in their lives. Someone who was like a great little brother with a grand moral compass to boot, but his past was something none of them had any real idea of, since the yellow squid himself tried to avoid talking of his personal history for the most part. The two arrived to their apartment a short time later.

"Grandpa! We're home," Callie called out, seeing the old squid resting in the chair and reading a book.

"Oh hey, squiddos! Did you turn up anything?" the elderly inkling inquired. Callie had a bright smile.

"The Splatfest is good to go! It was just a prank after all" Callie happily informed their grandsquid. Marie still seemed uneasy. Although Maize had texted them that everything was now fine, at the same time her nerves were still unable to relax.

"Ah, you squids… doing me proud," he hummed, glad that the three agents had been doing great. All of these tasks had been going well, and with the website still being praised, they made him really proud. Marie went off to change out of her disguise. The Splatfest was going to begin within three hours and they had to get ready.

"Where's Bondi?" Agent 1 asked. Her grandfather pointed her toward the other room, having enjoyed watching over his own great-grandson.

"He's just lying down for a nap. You got a real content one there, Callie. Now if only you had been like that when you were growing up," Captain Cuttlefish groaned at the memories. Callie blushed, aware she had not exactly the calmest first few years of her life. Some of the old video tapes her family had recorded from her younger age embarrassed her immensely. The Squid Sister headed to the nursery to check up on her son.

"This Splatfest is going to be the best. But I really need to do something nice for Maize," Callie thought to herself. Each Splatfest was pretty great in every way, but she wanted to show some way to thank Maize for helping her get this squishie and making her feel all the more fulfilled in her life, though she still had to work on getting her driver's license sometime. She had failed that five times so far.

"Aw…" Callie said upon looking into the crib. She saw Bondi slumbering peacefully, his head on a pillow. Beside him however was something she recognized, an all too familiar baby zapfish doll stitched together from patches with a small hat that was similar to Captain Cuttlefish's atop its head. The mother pulled out her cellphone and took a picture, aware that her grandsquid had made the doll from scratch like he always did. It brought up a lot of fond memories. She immediately sent the cute image to her friends. Shortly after, Callie left the nursery to start getting ready for the Splatfest as well.

"My head… what happened…?" groaned Maize. His eyes opened moments after that horrid encounter at the cheap mall. He began to look around, his head hurting already. He noticed that his glasses were not on his face, but from what he could tell, he was in some rundown abandoned building, judging by the horridly damaged paint on the wall, the long crack in the ceiling, and that he felt like he was going to fall through the floor at any second. He tried to move a muscle, but his arms and legs were bound, as well as his tentacle hair, so turning into his squid form was not an option to break out of the bindings easily.

"Great. Tied up again," Maize sighed in irritation. This was the third time he had been tied up this securely in his entire life, only this time it was not to play a game or for some Halloween prank gone wrong.

"Good. You're awake," he heard, trying to turn his head to view where the voice came from.

"Erm… I'm not an owl!" Maize growled. It felt like he was being toyed with. He at least now could see a clock however that read four in the afternoon. He had been unconscious for quite some time.

"Oh, my apologies. That's no way to treat a guest," he saw someone step around in front of his face. He was somewhat intimidated by the inkling he saw standing before him. It was a squid with green eyes, and red tentacle hair that were short in size and done into a way that they covered one of his eyes. He was wearing a fedora that was orange with a black checker pattern to it and a red trench coat that dangled carelessly to the floor.

"Great. So you're the crazy kraken that choked me?" Maize retorted, the red inkling bending over, their faces nearing each other.

"Crazy kraken? Huh, that's a new one. I'm Cornell the Third. A pleasure to meet you, Maize," Cornell introduced himself. For being a kidnapper, he was oddly very civilized, if he wasn't just being taunting. If the yellow squid was just a bit closer, he would have sunk his sharp teeth into the other inkling's face.

"Wait, how did you know my name?" Maize questioned, finding this slightly scarier. The red inkling presented the cellphone that he had stolen.

"You'd be amazed by how much a phone can tell you, like how your phone tells me you have squids curious if you're alright. But don't worry, I don't want to hurt anyone if I can help it," Cornell explained. Maize's sore throat begged to differ at the red squid's claim for disliking violence.

"Oh, well sorry for not being so happy with that, when my throat has bruises all over it!" Maize angrily stomped, moving in the wooden chair somewhat. Cornell pulled out a syringe and plunged it into the yellow inkling's neck. His eyes went wide, feeling the sharp needle sink into his neck.

"I guess I am an even worse host than I originally thought. I said you'd wake up calm, relaxed and happy, after all," Cornell began to push the plunger of the syringe, watching the liquid within course into the yellow squid's body before he removed it. Maize began to instantly feel his body begin to forcibly relax. He was feeling happy, and everything began to feel so quiet that he could hear his own steady heartbeat.

"Wh… wha…" Maize could not speak. This was horrifying to him. Whatever strange medication he had just been forcibly injected with, it was making his body relax and make him feel overjoyed, but his brain on the other hand was screaming and begging for this to stop. His mind was not able to rest, if anything. This just made it even more panicked. His body was fighting his mind with force. It took a lot of focus to even get his fingers to respond.

"You see, my grandsquid originally worked as a medical specialist in the great turf wars. You know, the very thing that seems to have been forgotten by nearly all inklings alive," Cornell started talking. At this point, Maize could only keep an intense angry glare on the red inkling. He wondered if this is what DJ Octavio felt like, because he felt in quite the similar situation right now, just lacking the snow globe prison. The great turf war was very old, and of course, not many inklings knew of it. Captain Cuttlefish was a part of it and had shared many tales of the fight between octarians and inklings. The great turf war was a huge fight for the leftover parts of land since the ocean had risen quite a lot and flooded the world. But since then more land had turned up, not just beyond Octo Valley but all over the world. It certainly was odd, but not yet explored either.

"He helped a lot of inklings with this serum, just at a lot smaller doses. I gave you about ten units in that one shot, but one unit alone can take away all the pain from… say, someone that had all their teeth busted," the red squid spoke more before he reached a hand down and poked Maize's forehead, making him seemingly even more infuriated.

"There was nothing but promise of a well secured life after the great turf war was over. And guess what? One fool stole a case during one of the first ever Splatfests and wound up getting two squids killed. The next thing I know, gramps is getting two life sentences, and I'm the last one left with the notes on how to create more of this serum," Cornell continued his long explanation, twirling the syringe carelessly around before licking the needle, before he rested it down on one of the many poor looking furniture pieces.

"But… if that Splatfest never happened, if everyone wasn't so excited, security would not have been relaxed, and that one idiot would not have gotten their tentacles on any of the medicine. That's what grandpa told me during one of the last times I could ever visit him," he finished his rambling to the almost lifeless puppet he had tied up. Maize was trying to do his best to understand this, but from what he could gather, this red inkling was blaming Splatfest for a crime that had occurred conveniently at the same time. He felt sorry that his grandsquid was no longer alive, but if he could right now, he would be beating Cornell into a puddle of ink.

"So I have acquired some help to make sure no one enjoys this Splatfest, and never want to do another one after it," the red inkling chuckled, pulling out Maize's cellphone before resting it in his lap.

"Like I said, you should enjoy this calm and relaxing time while you have it in your system. And don't worry… you aren't going to be alone," Cornell put a hand on Maize's head. That just slowly angered him further. He turned his head so he was looking right. He found another inkling there who he recognized easily. It was Onyx, the chief of security of the Tentatek Corporation, whom had been captured hours ago, and he seemed to be suffering from similar side effects from the drugs. Maize suddenly felt worried about Aero's safety. If the best security guard had been captured, what would become of Aero?

"Well, take care. I have a lot I need to start getting ready with. Take care, my friend, and do not worry. I promise you'll be alright," Cornell hummed, beginning to walk away, the door to the horrible room slamming shut behind him. All Maize could do was sit there, numb, his mind processing what to do. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this, and he had to help Onyx, too, even if he hated him with a passion. The sun was beginning to set, and Splatfest was soon to begin. A fun celebration for all squids was about to be ruined, and Maize steadfastly refused to allow it to happen.


	19. Setup

Maize had spent the next hour trying to just get his body to respond. He was slowly regaining feeling. That forced joyous feeling that medicine had given him was thankfully gone, and his vocal cords were at least starting to get back to normal as well.

"I… I'm going to splat him… so badly…" Maize growled while nibbling on his ropes with his sharp teeth, thankful that the serum had made him unable to feel anything. He was going to keep chewing as long as he could.

"Man… where'd that hipster jerk go?" Onyx groaned, shaking his head sorely. He appeared to be already recovered fully from the serum. It was shocking to Maize, but he could only assume the security guard had gotten a lesser dose than he did.

"He-hey… Onyx! Can you get free?" Maize called out to his wife's second husband. He was quite muscular and he knew that much. Maize doubted Cornell would count on them being to get out anytime soon.

"I think so…" Onyx gritted his teeth as his tentacles struggled to break free of their bindings. It only took a few moments before Maize heard a snap. The black inkling used his tentacles to undo the ropes restraining his hands. It took a minute, but he was finally out of all of the bindings.

"You alright?" Onyx asked while coming over and beginning to free Maize. They both had heard that lunatic's ramblings. Once his bindings had been removed, Agent 3 ripped the ropes off his tentacles, grabbing his cellphone. Trying to stand, he almost fell over instantly. The security chief helped him stay balanced.

"Sorry… I can't feel much…" Maize responded. He was going to have to force his body to work through everything. Not being able to feel anything made it a lot harder to keep control. He approached the next room, Onyx alongside him. They could see the exit there, but this room had caught their attention instantly. There were blueprints lying around everywhere that depicted some odd weapon that looked almost like an oversized megaphone.

"…killer wails…? This is insane," Onyx rubbed his head. Killer wails were a special weapon that would emit a huge wave of sound with the squid's specific ink color. Maize still couldn't see that well without his glasses. He groaned, assuming that he had lost them when Cornell strangled him into unconsciousness at the cheap mall.

"Yeah…" Maize nodded while digging around in his pockets. He pulled out the octoling goggles that Octoronia had given him, thankful that he had not left them at home. He put them on his face and adjusted them. Now his vision for a short range was better. His eyes however noticed something.

"Is that…" Agent 3 gasped. On one of the many tables was the splatterscope that he had cherished for nearly a year as his most prized weapon, and the one he was best with… now in pieces. Broken in half, it looked like the red squid had taken a hammer to it and afterwards dissected every individual piece of it.

"My splatterscope… done for! …I hate my luck," Maize buried his face in his hands, feeling like his luck lately had been against him. Onyx patted his back, having seen him carrying that very weapon back in the Tentatek Building. He knew what it was like to get attached to a weapon and then try to change to a new one. It was jarring, erratic and annoying.

"You can mourn later, but right now we gotta get to the plaza… the Splatfest is starting!" Onyx reminded him that it was getting past five in the evening. Cornell and his goons were going to set their plan into motion if no one got in the way.

"Okay, hold on and I'll follow you," Maize pulled out his cellphone, beginning to dial Marie's number as he and Onyx left the rundown room, going in top speed to try and get to the plaza. When Agent 2 did not answer, Maize tried to dial Callie's number.

"C'mon… pickup! Pickup!" Maize growled in frustration. There was no response. Neither of them were answering their phones. He presumed they had turned them off for the Splatfest since they would be singing for it, and for some reason, even Captain Cuttlefish didn't respond to the attempted phone call. It was driving the teenage squid insane to know he had no one he could call in this emergency, though he looked over and saw Onyx on his cellphone.

"Yeah… yeah! Okay, meet us there and bring some weapons. Thanks," he said before hanging up. Maize was hoping he had requested back up from other security members, but he knew a lot of workers were off whenever Splatfests happened. The two just continued their hurry to get to the main plaza.

In the main plaza, as the sun was beginning to set. Things had just started to get lively. The stage was down and inklings from all around were beginning to crowd the area, yet the stage in the centre was empty. There were two megaphones set up to the side with a microphone in the middle. Behind the megaphones were the Squid Sisters themselves, looking confused.

"Uh, Marie? Wasn't Aero supposed to say something for the opening?" Callie asked after making sure her megaphone was off. Her cousin shrugged while making sure her tentacles were done up right.

"Whatevs. I'm sure it'd just be some promotional junk anyway," Marie did not remotely care for the missing Tentatek Corporation's CEO. Normally the sponsor for each individual Splatfest got a chance to speak freely. Neither of the Squid Sisters could say anything about the Splatfest, since it would come off as biased and them rooting for their own sides, but for once, one of them may be forced to speak up. Agent 1 approached the microphone in the centre. She had no idea what to say, but assumed that the simple route was the best.

"Err… welcome, inklings! I hope you all are ready! Tentatek has helped a lot with the last four Splatfests in a row, and with this that record will be five! Know that no matter what team you fight for, remember the one thing you're all here to do! It's not just to win! It's also to have fun!" Callie exclaimed the first chain of words that would come to mind. These words seemed to do the perfect job. The plaza erupted into cheers. The crowds of applauding inklings were wearing their team shirts. Callie felt relieved to know her speech worked out. She always had trouble adjusting to the difference from speaking to a camera for thousands of fans, that being in front of a majority of them felt like instant stage fright.

"Without further ado, let the Splatfest, Cars vs Planes, begin!" Marie added through the megaphone, having turned it on, much to the surprise of her cousin's ears. Callie got back into position. A lot of the crowd was heading into the Plaza Tower to begin the fights for their respective sides. The music was starting to kick in when the two began to sync up to their movements. But, on the nearby rooftops, a few squids were at work, hiding in the darkness where no one, not even the Squid Sisters, could see them.

"Yes, my comrades. Keep up the good work," Cornell hummed. He was on one knee, watching the Splatfest begin from above. There were two rooftops across from each other. On both roofs were a couple of inklings who were setting up the very killer wails that they had gotten prepared, angling them down toward the plaza. If both of them were to fire their sound waves, who knows how many would be splattered. And the huge damage after that even.

"Sir, Cornell, can I please receive another one of your payments?" one of the inklings requested, looking almost ready to beg. The teenage squid was holding his arm in pain. There was a long scar running down it. The red squid tilted his head, rolling his eyes. He reached into his trench coat and pulled out another syringe of the serum that had three units worth of the medicine within it. He carried plenty of the drug on himself.

"You are a very loyal worker, but I warned you not to get addicted. When you don't have any for a day, you will suffer unwanted symptoms," Cornell handed over the syringe. He wasn't happy when talking about the side effects of this drug, but he knew this was going to happen no matter what he did.

"So-sorry, sir… but it hurts too much…" his worker looked upset as he injected his arm with one unit of the three in the syringe. Once that was done, he removed it, appearing to calm down fast, pocketing the rest of the medicine. The single unit had taken away the pain in his arm and relaxed him.

"Make sure the killer wails get fully charged, and if we need more time, get the hidden workers in the crowd to stir up a fuss," Cornell stood up. The sound of the Squid Sisters' music was filling the air. He began to walk across the rooftop, heading toward the other side.

"I have to prepare the grand finale. And remember; once this is done, you and your co-workers will gain enough serum that you will never feel pain again," Cornell reminded his servant who saluted in response. The boss continued walking away across the rooftops like they were a shortcut.

Maize and Onyx were nearing the plaza. The sound of the music almost echoed through the streets, and everyone they passed looked extremely happy. The yellow inkling was grateful that the medicine he had been forcibly injected with was wearing off faster due to the exercise.

"Please tell me you have a plan?" Maize asked the black inkling as they were beginning to get closer to the plaza entrance. They could see a white van that seemed eerily idle in comparison to any of the other vehicles around.

"Nope. I was hoping you had that covered," Onyx shook his head. The yellow squid swore his body wanted to just collapse and make him sleep through this nightmare.

"Making plans is not my forte…" Maize admitted shamefully. He had been forced to act faster than he liked to lately. Plans were brushed away half the time, and right now was no different. The Splatfest was going to be devastated in a matter of time, which meant a very severe time limit for them. The chief of security banged on the side of the white van, seeing the side door open widely.

"Hello sir, we brought the weapons you requested," one of two oddly similar looking inklings said. Maize thought the dress code for security officers was really strict in the Tentatek Corporation. The other squid pulled out a case, handing it over and then resting two ink tanks out for them. Maize grabbed the yellow ink tank and tossed it over his shoulder.

"Do you have any chargers in here?" Maize quirked while resting the case down and opening it. Sadly, all there was inside were two weapons. One was an oversized paint brush he knew as the Octobrush. The other was a yellow and black weapon he recognized as the Hero Shot Replica, a basic splatting weapon for all ranged fighting.

"Sorry, the boss said grab the best weapons we had available, and that was all we had," the security guard apologized, Onyx picking up the hero shot repica and preparing it with an ink tank full of the black ink on his back. Maize took the octobrush. He hated fighting in close range, but he knew how when it came right down to it. He mainly hated it, because he was better at fighting from afar. The yellow inkling quickly hooked it up to his ink tank. When ready, the small group of four began to head into the plaza. Onyx and his three security guards were following Maize ahead. The yellow squid saw the plaza ahead. Callie and Marie were dancing on stage with a fair share of inklings mimicking their moves. Maize could see the killer wails on the roofs, being aimed to behind the stage. But everyone else was mistaking them as speakers.

"Onyx! Take your crew and go left! I'll handle the right killer wail! Stop them, no matter what!" Maize ordered. That was his immediate plan. Onyx nodded, mostly worried over Aero's safety since neither of them had heard from her since all of this had begun. The group had scattered to get to the rooftops as fast as they could. Maize didn't care what he had to do. He was going to protect Callie Marie and every other inkling, no matter what.


	20. Heroism

**Authors Note: Hi all, I hope you enjoy this chapter! I made it longer than normal, I know. But it was for you all! Have a good day and take care!**

 **Bonus Note: Also, if no one has noticed it. I name all the characters after colors, if I can.**

Maize had ran through the crowded plaza with his octobrush on his side. He had approached one of the edges of the plaza, where there were small metal beams set up to hold up the Splatfest banner, which was crafted with a lot of care to represent the Cars vs Planes theme. He grabbed on and began to climb up it. He had to use his tentacle hair to keep himself from falling off. When he reached the top, he saw two squids, one with their back turned by the ledge. He immediately grabbed his leg and threw him off the rooftop into a bush below.

"Hey, what the!" the other inkling pulled out an Aerospray RG, firing some splotches of blue ink at the yellow squid. Maize used his octobrush and caught some of the shots before he swung, smacking the enemy squid and coating them in yellow ink. They splattered instantly into a puddle of ink. Maize looked over to the other rooftop. Thankfully Onyx and his two helpers had disabled the first killer wail and were now dealing with the emergency backup that was being called in. Suddenly, something hit Maize like a hammer.

"Oh no… I don't know how to cut it off!" Maize screamed in realization. This killer wail was almost done charging, and it was going to fire onto the plaza. Even if it was the only one that fired, it still would cover a huge area.

"There he is!" he heard, looking over. Coming over the rooftop were more inklings of various colors, all armed and angry, though they all had partially visible injuries. Maize hated to think that Cornell had gotten so many injured or crippled squids to help with his dirty work. He looked at the killer wail, going to the front of it.

"C'mon…!" Maize gritted his sharp teeth as he got in front of the killer wail, going under it. He began to push up with all his strength. He felt his body screaming in protest. Killer wails were easy to place, but once they were down, they were hard to move. He began to see red rings appearing around the front of the huge weapon.

"Graaaah!" Maize roared, forcing it upwards as he threw it over onto its back. The attacking squids were terrified.

"Wait, get away!" one of the many shouted. They had little time to react when the killer wail let out a loud noise. It fired a wave of red sound waves that instantly splattered the wave of inklings and destroyed part of the rooftop. Maize got so startled by it that he almost fell off the roof, but he caught the edge of it, dangling off of it. The killer wail had caused quite the bit of noise pollution in a brief few seconds, and had drawn quite some attention.

"What was that?!" Marie asked, still onstage. That loud sound had interrupted their singing. The entire audience and crowd they had looked confused and afraid.

"Hey Maize! You alright?" Onyx called out, seeing the unexpected scene play out before him and his backup, but it was nice to know that he had dealt with a huge chunk of the enemy.

"Uh, y-yeah… just improvising like usual," Maize sighed. He had been doing this as a main form of planning for a while lately. He began to pull himself back onto the rooftop. They both had to find Cornell. Callie took notice of their dear friend, having seen him clinging to the edge of the rooftop.

"Maize?" Callie chirped. But there were other inklings in the crowd not caring, where the Squid Sisters couldn't notice. One pink squid was now on their cellphone.

"Sir Cornell. Things have gone really off the rails!" she described while preparing her Splattershot Jr and her ink tank. Cornell was very unhappy to hear this.

"Well… a host must make sure all of his guests are attended too, even if it must be done manually… Plan B. I'll get things ready here," Cornell ordered before hanging up. The young squid girl stood up.

"Plan B!" she shouted, the rest of her partners in crime instantly agreeing to this, beginning to get their weapons ready immediately.

"Whoa, get down!" Marie grabbed Callie by her hand, yanking her out of the way, watching a torrent of pink ink spray the stage. They couldn't see who had done it though. The crowd started to go crazy and were trying their best to escape this sudden outburst of violence. This Splatfest had gone wild. Agents 1 and 2 immediately climbed off the back of the stage. They had been targeted for the attack, just as some sign to show how serious this assault was.

"You were right! This is not a prank!" Callie fearfully admitted. This was horrifying for a situation. She had a few nightmares where their fans would attack them just a common fear for any star. Marie knew her instincts were right when she got suspicious of that text from Maize claiming otherwise. While Callie was panicking, Marie quickly tried to think up a way out of this, noticing more and more various colors of ink beginning to spray the area and splatter inklings left and right.

"Hey! You two!" Marie grabbed two random squids from the side before a blast of green ink flew by. She had saved those two from being splattered for the moment.

"Whew, thanks…" the male inkling sighed in relief. Before he knew it, his ink tank filled with blue ink had been taken from him, as well as his charger weapon which was long and light blue in color with a bottle at the back of it. Marie knew this was a classic squiffer, not what she personally would pick for a weapon. But this was no time to be picky.

"He-hey! What are you doing with my boyfriend's weapon?" the female squid asked the Squid Sisters. She had a krak-on roller on her back with her ink tank of green ink.

"Sorry, but we need these weapons badly. We'll return them, with autographs of course!" Callie explained. The couple looked to each other, unsure about this, but they thought it might be easier to escape without their weapons slowing them down. The female inkling turned over her green ink tank and her krak-on roller.

"Be careful," Marie told them, letting the two inklings return to their escape attempt. Callie tried to take in a breath to calm down, aware that this was about to get more chaotic. Marie climbed on top of the stage once more, charging up her classic squiffer and aiming. One of Cornell's workers noticed her and attempted to turn around and fire, but Marie let go of the trigger, watching a strong blast of blue ink fly through the air and hit the inkling in the face, splattering them instantly. Another two were at the side of the stage, aiming for the famous squid.

"Knock it off!" Callie charged at them, catching them off guard before she crushed them under the roller, leaving behind a big green trail of ink. Rollers really packed a punch. The black inkling loved the type of weapon a lot.

"Where did he go?!" Maize angrily asked himself. He had met up with Onyx midway when the rooftops started to get closer together, making it easy to cross and group up. They had no idea where Cornell could have gone. He was nowhere near here, or in their sight. The yellow squid was paranoid that the red squid was controlling the reigns of this attack in hiding.

"He probably knows I'm gonna rip his tentacles out!" Onyx said while searching the surrounding area from their higher vantage point. One of his two security guards suddenly got splattered into a puddle of orange ink.

"Whoa!" Maize threw himself down, falling onto the rooftop. The other security guard got blasted before they could even move a muscle. Onyx saw an enemy orange squid who was holding an inkzooka, a special weapon that unleashed a strong blast of ink that did a lot of damage. This seemed like a good sign. If they were still being attacked when they were a little farther away from the main plaza, it meant that Cornell's crew were protecting something. That or this was just one rogue squid that just wanted to splatter other.

"Maize, you go get Cornell. I'll deal with this punk," Onyx cracked his neck. Maize looked at him, unsure about this, just before they both dodged another blast of the inkzooka.

"Are you sure?" Maize tried to argue, "What if…"

"Do it! I'm not gonna let this jerk use Tentatek's own weapons and damage the company's reputation, not even Aero's!" Onyx opened fire, the ink flying as the enemy inkling took cover behind the roof. Maize nodded, wishing he had the other agents to help. The yellow inkling began to run off toward the direction past the inkzooka wielding lunatic. He had to find the red squid now and fast. He was feeling more and more worried that those killer wails weren't the only thing that was prepared to ruin this Splatfest.

Maize had climbed off the roof and back onto the streets. He saw a gigantic mess of red ink. It almost felt like a trail, but he could tell that several squids had been splattered here, judging by the patterns around.

"Why do bad guys pick the scariest looking places…?" Maize pondered to himself while adjusting his goggles. He did not want to walk down a somewhat eerie alleyway into a doorway that led into one building. This was the type of place that if he bumped into someone, he could guarantee that his wallet would be gone. Maize kept his hand on his octobrush as he followed the red ink, one step at a time, feeling like he could hear his own steps echo.

"Hello?" Maize tried to call out into the empty environment, hoping that maybe someone friendly might be around to help. As he entered into the building, he saw three small windows letting in moonlight and illuminating the hallway, and a metal shutter. He grabbed the handle of it, seeing the red ink continue in there.

"Welp, it's now or never," the yellow squid grabbed the handle of the shutter, tugging hard and sliding it upwards, hearing it rattle loudly. There were some lights coming from inside. He took a few steps within when he suddenly heard someone trying to charge at him. The yellow inkling ducked, seeing a blast of pink ink splatter the wall.

"Fight me like a real squid! Hiding in the dark is pufferfish levels of low!" Maize stated, watching the annoyed inkling appear from the darkness with a tri-slosher in their hands.

"Where's Cornell?" Maize demanded. The inking shook their head with a smirk. It was the one who had a scar on their arm.

"Sorry, I can't say," they responded before trying to throw another wave of the pink ink at Maize. He got covered in some of the ink. It stung his legs and entire lower body like poisonous water. He forced his legs ahead and swung his octobrush, smashing the tri-slosher bucket out of their hands and flying across the room. Maize pinned the scarred inkling against the wall with his brush.

"You tell me right now! He's ruining what should be a fun night!" Maize repeated his demands, noticing a syringe dangling out of the coat pocket of the inkling. He grabbed it and took it away, seeing two units left within it.

"Wa-wait! Don't take my serum!" the enemy squid requested, looking like he had seen a ghost when that serum got taken away. Maize assumed there was a reason behind this.

"You want it back? Then tell me now," he glared. The scarred inkling bowed in agreement, not wanting to lose his pain curing medicine.

"H-he's in the back room where the huge skylight is, with the owner of Tentatek," the serum addicted squid explained. Hearing about the CEO struck a nerve. He held the syringe back farther.

"Aero…?! What's he doing with her?" Maize asked. He never felt this protective of her before. Aero was always able to fend for herself. But this seemed like a situation that left her unable to defend herself.

"I-I dunno! Please don't take away Cornell… I need that serum. Everyone one of us does! I can't take the pain daily, none of us can!" the squid begged, looking ready to go on their knees. Being unarmed and having their medicine stolen really was a dramatic surprise for them. Maize could not relate to the feeling of immense pain on the daily basis, but that scar did look nasty. He felt guilty.

"I promise everything will be fine without Cornell," Maize declared while presenting the syringe back to the scarred inkling who took it back confusedly.

"A promise...? What's the worth if Cornell is gone? Every doctor thinks we're just drug addicted brats," the inkling plopped down onto the concrete floor, seeming grandly depressed, imagining that the amazing medicine the red squid made was gone.

"The Special Squid Services helps everyone out. You can count on me," Maize reassured before he continued his urgent rush. The inkling on the floor looked at the syringe in his hands. Maize's words had felt reassuring for some reason.

Maize did his best to try and be quieter with his hurried approach this time, not wanting to get surprised by another attack. Even if his pants and most of his legs were covered in another ink color, he had to tolerate the pain for now. He began to arrive to the room that the scarred squid had told him about.

"You can't seriously blame me for something that happened a long time ago! I only became CEO three years ago!" Aero's voice rung out. Maize stopped in his place, being near another doorway, holding his octobrush.

"You know, as a guest, it is quite rude of you to continue rambling to the host. I'm not accusing you. I'm just accusing your company," Cornell spoke up. His tone sounded bored and uninterested. Maize decided to take a risk and peek into the room. His eyes were ready to burst out through his goggles. He identified three big green and orange rockets with propellers at the bottom of them. They were inkstrikes, huge area covering special weapons, aimed right for the skylight. Cornell was in the process of preparing them to launch.

"My company is a part of my family history! Whatever you're rambling about had nothing to do with Splatfest!" Aero continued her protest, trying to get him to cease this insanity. But then she spotted her husband, looking shocked to see him here. Maize motioned her to stay quiet.

"My grandfather could have helped so many more lives. Once all of this is over, I will help just as many as he did," the red inkling spoke. At this point, Aero had given up on her negotiating efforts. There was so much hypocrisy on top of that statement alone that she couldn't make enough rebuttals to make her point clear. If he really planned on helping squids, he would forget the whole revenge deal and move on from it as it was just a simple accident.

"Five minutes, and these will cover the plaza. I know this won't put an end to Splatfests, but it will make others afraid, and take your company's reputation down a lot," Cornell sung. At this point Aero was getting angrier. If she was not tied up to a pipe, she would have broken out by now and inflicted so much pain to that crazy medicine lover.

Maize began to slowly sneak up through the side, hoping to hide behind the inkstrikes like they were pillars. Aero's nervous gaze followed him. Cornell entered in the code, watching the countdown begin for the five minutes that would soon come to pass.

"Over my dead body!" Maize shouted, jumping out with this octobrush overhead. Cornell got bashed by the strike of yellow ink that coated his trench coat with a big streak. Unfortunately he did not get splattered by the attack.

"Am I the only one who knows proper manners for guests?" Cornell sighed before disrobing his trench coat, dropping it aside. He revealed a white and red striped shirt underneath and a red ink tank on his back. Tons of syringes lined from inside the trench coat. It looked like one bad fall while wearing that coat would inject him with a thousand units.

"Shut up about your manners! You tied up my wife!" Maize reminded, starting to think maybe he should have freed Aero first just so he could get some help. The countdown already passed the four minute mark of the timer. Aero felt a lot happier, seeing her husband with that spirit in him.

"Is that a no?" Cornell reached down behind his back and pulled out a splattershot pro, beginning to open fire, spraying balls of red ink. Maize swung his octobrush upwards, splashing up yellow ink and catching the splotches, mixing with the red before splashing onto the floor. Before the yellow squid knew it, he had taken cover behind the inkstrike, and so did Cornell on the other side.

"Maize, I don't mean to rush you, but my arms are falling asleep!" Aero added, hearing her husband chuckle at the joke. He needed to stay light and calm. He saw Cornell change into his squid form and begin swimming through the red ink. Maize began swinging his brush back and forth rapidly, sending out wave after wave of yellow ink that covered the red up fast. He saw Cornell pop up in front of his face. He seemingly had the ability to swim with lightning speed in his squid form.

"Grah!" Maize got hit hard when Cornell bashed him with his splattershot pro, harming him with the weapon and not attempting to splat his enemy. Aero saw the countdown reach the one minute mark. The yellow squid lay on the floor, his head throbbing in pain.

"I honor your chivalry, but I have to treat you like the poor guest you are," Cornell apologized, aiming his splattershot pro for Maize's head. The yellow squid gulped.

"Maize! You gotta do something! They're going to launch!" Aero screamed as the countdown reached thirty seconds. The yellow squid knew his wife was terrified, aware that if the Splatfest got ruined by the Tentatek's Company weapons, then they were about to get lawsuits, or be forcibly shut down by police for having such poor security that several of their weaponry got stolen.

Maize had to wing it. He slammed the palm of his hand on a button that was on the octobrush, right when Cornell fired with a grin. However, the red inkling stepped back in surprise at what he saw Maize had now become.

"Oh yeah…" Aero grinned. Not only was Maize in his squid form, but he was five times larger than regular, and his tentacles looked stronger. Maize had become a kraken; a nice tide turner in turf wars, or when someone needed a boost of power.

"You think that will scare me?" Cornell tried to keep his confident face as he began firing. Maize let the red ink hit him, it but it did not hurt. As a kraken, all ink did not bother the user like he was rather invincible. The countdown was reaching ten seconds. Maize swam over to one of the ink strikes, throwing his tentacles onto it. He pulled hard and knocked it over onto its side, before he slammed it hard with his tentacle, breaking it in half. The damage had kicked one of the many syringes over to Aero. She grabbed it with her hand with the minimal movement she had, beginning to slowly cut at the ropes with the needle.

"No! What are you doing?! You must stop!" Cornell screamed, realizing that there was nothing he could do in this situation. He watched as Maize grabbed the second inkstrike rocket with his suction cups, ripping the top off of it and hitting it as it fell over and crumpled apart from being so heavily hit.

"Come on! You can do it!" Aero cheered. Cornell began to fire rapidly, trying to suppress Maize in any way possible. The third and final inkstrike began to glow at the bottom, indicating that was done charging and about to launch. Maize grabbed it with one of his tentacles, but the red squid got between them in an attempt to stop the yellow kraken.

"Sorry! But I'm keeping a promise!" Maize growled, punching hard with his other tentacle. He hit Cornell right into the ink rocket, his head clanging loudly against the metal. Cornell collapsed into unconsciousness, just like that'. Maize grabbed the last ink strike with his tentacles as it was beginning to launch. He was trying his best to stop it.

"Uh oh…" Maize lost his kraken form. It finally ran out of its special limit, and now the yellow inkling was stuck on the inkstrike, he had no time to react before it launched. He got sent flying toward the night air, smashing through the glass of the sky light.

"Oh gosh! Maize!" Aero screamed to the empty area, before she noticed another inkling standing in the doorway. It was the squid that her husband had just promised things would work out for him, with or without the medicine. The teenage squid saw Cornell unconscious on the floor with one of his teeth bashed out. He approached the Tentatek Corporation CEO.

"Here. We need to get going," he said while freeing Aero from her bindings, much to her relief. The syringe did not make for a good knife at all.

"Waaaaaaaahhh!" Maize was screaming as he rode the inkstrike through the air. It was terrifying to be flying so high in the sky. It was unstable, too, due to the dent it had received. The yellow squid began to try and bash it with his octobrush while using his tentacles to hold on, every hit created a new ding he was doing everything he could to try and stop it, but the short air flight would be ending soon, right into the main plaza.

At the main plaza, the Squid Sisters had been fighting ever since things had gotten chaotic. Marie was shooting squids with her squiffer Jr. She let go of the trigger, watching another burst of ink splatter one of the hostile inklings instantly. They had dealt with a lot of them for the most part. The two cousins were covered in various splotches of different colored ink.

"Uh… Marie? What is that?!" Callie asked, pointing into the air, watching something in the sky begin to come falling down. It was indeed an inkstrike, the mark appearing on the ground as a warning.

"Really…? An inkstrike," Marie rubbed her forehead tiredly. They had to run now if they wanted safety. However, just as fast as it came, they heard Maize's screaming on top of it before it crashed into the center of the plaza. But, there was no huge explosion of ink. Just the sound of the screaming coming to an end. With a loud clang as well, all of the fighting simultaneously ended. The Squid Sisters began to shove their way through the remaining crowd of enemies. There were only a few of the hostile inklings left, and those few seemed intent on getting away now, aware that the plan had failed.

"Maize!" Callie gasped, seeing their blonde friend lying on the cracked concrete, the ink strike in pieces with the red ink inside oozing out of it. His goggles loosely dangled on his face, and the octobrush and his own ink tank were broken into pieces. Callie rushed to his side and tried to make sure he was alright. Marie was approaching, but she had not dropped her guard.

"Maize! Maize! Come on! Speak to me!" Callie shook him. It was an upsetting scene to both her and Marie. The squid they considered like a brother was covered in bruises and cuts and scrapes all over his body, lying unconscious. Thankfully it did not last long, as they heard him coughing.

"Ohhh… I think I broke every bone in my body…" Maize groaned. Callie hugged him tight, though it made everything hurt, like he had been ran through a crusher.

"You're insane! You know that?" Marie commented. That little rocket ride he took was not what they expected to see. There was that big grin of Maize's again, that smile he always tried his best to keep up.

"Yeah… I am," he chuckled in agreement before going into a coughing fit.

"Can you please call an ambulance? I've had one heck of a rough day," Maize requested while Callie tried to make sure he was comfortable for now, with his head resting on her lap. She got her cellphone out and immediately began to dial for emergency services. Her cousin begun to realize Splatfest had been halted due to this crazy events that had occurred. Now she had to address the crowd.

"Erm… look, every inkling. Tonight was greatly derailed from the main point. We don't like Splatfests to bring harm to anyone. Thankfully, the Special Squid Services did everything to halt it. But sadly, we're still going to have to delay this Splatfest for three days so we can recover and repair," Marie tried to explain to the audience. The squids all seemed to understand. They had just witnessed the crazy random attack break out in the main plaza.

The Squid Sisters could hear the sound of ambulance sirens. They were already nearby due to someone calling paramedics about all sorts of injuries. Multiple ambulances came up, at least three beginning to get follow up. Tonight was crazy and had gotten blown way out of grandiose proportions. Maize was happy though that everything worked out. He had saved the Splatfest from being made a scary event. Hopefully, Cornell's attack would be seen just as some insane boredom from a group of squids. It didn't take long before the yellow inkling was being put onto a stretcher, the Squid Sisters watching him get carried off into the ambulance.

Hours passed, and the night continued normally from there. Maize had pocketed his octoling goggles to keep them from being suspiciously looked over. He was lying in his hospital bed, with a lot of bandages wrapped around a lot of his body. The room was quite colorful and relaxing. He was just playing his Gameboy Advance while he lay there. It was some personal entertainment each hospital room offered, which was nice.

"Uh, knock knock," he heard, looking up to his open door. Aero stood there, carrying a small wrapped box and a flower in her hand. Onyx was right behind her, looking like he had received some medical treatment himself. They entered inside the room, letting the door close behind them.

"Hey Aero. I'm glad you're safe," Maize greeted his wife warmly, seeing her hand over the wrapped box. He took it, confused. It was yellow with a red ribbon wrapped around it.

"I know I agreed to be with you through good times and bad. But I didn't know it meant this," Aero joked, referring to their wedding vows. He got a small laugh from that, but wound up coughing again. He untied the bow on the present before opening it, seeing a pair of glasses within.

"My spare glasses! You still had them all this time?" Maize asked while putting them on. That was a lot better for his two eyes. He had left the spare glasses at her home a long time ago before he cleared out. Onyx was glad that the two were happy, but he was here as a friend and a security guard.

"I have some of your stuff Maize. You were just gone one day. And I still want to know why," Aero requested her husband to tell her what had happened that fateful day a long time ago. It was only shortly after she became CEO. The yellow squid had changed so much since then, but he didn't look to happy with this topic.

"I'm sorry. Do you remember when we were both ten?" Maize questioned, while seeing his wife hold up the flower. It appeared to be a blue colored rose that brought back all too many memories.

"You'd always take a flower from your mom's garden, and whenever I was sad, you would make me overjoyed again," Aero had continued their reminiscing. Their childhood together was quite great.

"I remember that time I snuck into my older sister's room. We snuck out some of her weapons, and dad was not happy when he got home when he saw the mess we made," Maize laughed in retrospect. He had done quite a lot to his sibling growing up, but he could never recall her getting mad over it. His sister always had insisted he continue to have fun with ink, no matter what.

"Do you remember that promise you made?" Aero requested. He had made probably thousands of promises at this point, but he knew the one his wife wanted to hear.

"Yeah. That one night you were crying, because your bird died. I did everything, but it never cheered you up," he started.

"…then one day, you barge into my room and say…" she continued, the two going back and forth between themselves.

"…I promise to always make you happy!" Maize quoted the exact words of his younger self before he sighed, recalling those times. Somehow that promise had instantly cheered Aero up. She never understood why. He thought it was time to tell her what she really wanted to hear.

"I'm sorry I left. I wanted you to be happy. But I never really was happy in that marriage," Maize admitted, expecting to see her upset, but his wife seemed to already know that, having nodded.

"You married me… and then let me make it an open marriage, all because you wanted to keep me happy, right?" Aero requested the truth on the matter. If his promise really was that important that he had done all that for her. The childhood friend of hers took a moment to respond.

"A promise is a promise. It was all for you," Maize answered. She sighed, beginning to rub her own tentacle nervously. He never had told her that he never wanted part in the marriage, all so she could be happy. The blue inkling looked to Onyx. He knew what she was about to do, having discussed it with him before.

"I want a divorce," Aero forced the words out of her mouth.

"R-really? Bu-but Aero, I thought you always were happy with the marriage," Maize responded, stunned. He hated to admit that he was happy to be getting divorced. His wife practically was married to Onyx due to their open marriage. She shook her head.

"I was happy to be with you. But I'd be more happy if we cut out the romance binding us," Aero missed their old friendship. As a couple she never felt like they were on the same emotional status, she had been the one that primarily had made their friendship escalate, and it never felt right since then.

"Huh… I always was the one trying to make you happy. But this time, you've made me happy," Maize smiled, glad that everything was turning back to normal, but he was aware that he had to spend a year waiting for that divorce to be finalized, unless his former wife had some strong connections as a CEO.

"Hey, Onyx. You better take good care of her," Maize told Onyx. The black inkling nodded, aware that the two still were together at the moment.

"I'm a security guard! That's my job," Onyx joked, gaining some snickers. He rummaged around in his pockets before presenting a coin card to Maize. He looked it, seeing 20,000 coins on it, much to his surprise.

"Consider that a gift for the heroism," Aero said, having taken those coins out of her own savings. It was not like it was much. She had millions from being the Tentatek Corporations owner. Maize couldn't be any happier. The three of them continued to talk. He and Aero reminisced sharing their tales with Onyx after this long night. Everything seemed to be coming to a calm end, but for Maize, he still had a lot of work to do as a member of the Special Squid Services, but he was always going to help squids out, no matter how dangerous. But first, he needed to recover in the hospital, as much as he was irritated by it. He was glad that Cornell had been arrested, at least, and his entire crew were now scattered. There didn't seem to be a remote threat to any future Splatfests now.


	21. Bravery

It had been a week since Cornell's attack during the Splatfest. He was looking at a huge charge for the event. It only had delayed Splatfest for three days, and when the Cars vs Planes Splatfest occurred, Team Cars emerged triumphant, much to the annoyance of Maize. He wished he could have participated, but he only had gotten out of the hospital yesterday. He was in his home, wearing a black shirt that had a pattern of drawn vines like piranha plants on it. His living room had been tidied up a lot now, but his coffee table was covered with parts for a weapon that did not look complete yet. There was a blueprint attached to the wall for a splatterscope. He was trying to make a new one to replace the last one that had unfortunately got smashed. His television was playing in front of him, but he was not really paying much attention to it.

"And the last of the current ranked turf war stages today… is walleye warehouse!" Marie's voice chimed. The Squid Sisters were nearing the end of a regular stage rundown like always, informing which normal stages were up and which ranked areas would be played for the competitive squids.

"Is it wrong to admit I sometimes miss working there?" Callie added their usual continuation of the stage chatter. Her cousin looked irritated, recalling their part-time jobs they used to have at the warehouse.

"Only if you remember that time we got in a huge debt, because you destroyed three boxes of imported cargo," Marie reminded of all the bad times they had during their part-time work, like how they occasionally wound up breaking the assembly lines. Callie seemed embarrassed to be reminded of that time. Thankfully her grandpa helped save them from that accident. Maize chuckled, seeing the two on his television. They never could go one stage coverage without their banter.

"Squee!" a noise blared from the television. Maize looked up confusedly wondering what had interrupted that broadcast, the Squid Sisters caught off guard on that.

"Err… how about we cut to commercial before we move onto the news," Callie suggested before walking off camera. Marie didn't disagree at the idea of a small break. The cameraman however appeared to have other ideas, following her along until she approached to the side away from the main television that they usually stood in front of. Callie had approached one of the squids off to the side, who seemed to be sitting in front of a computer, making sure the footage was being recorded smoothly. He was holding Bondi in one of his arms. The squishie had started to speak up more lately, and as such make rather louder noises.

"Heh. Momma's little star already on TV," Maize joked to himself, but then watched as part of the splatterscope fell apart from not being assembled too well. He sighed in frustration, wishing he had paid extra to just have the weapons shop assemble it. Callie didn't even notice the camera on her as she held Bondi, until Marie grabbed the lens and refocused the direction of the camera.

"Hey, commercial! Leave him off the air!" Marie demanded, seeming furious at her cousin's son being on television. She didn't want him to be bothered when they took him out in public. They never wanted to disguise Bondi if they could help it. Almost instantly, the broadcast cut to some commercial about watermelon and lime flavored soda.

"That cameraman might get a salary cut for this," Maize chuckled, thankful that the Squid Sisters had been handling missions on their own ever since he got admitted to the hospital. It was great to know that he had others he could rely on. However, as the yellow squid continued fiddling with his weapon, he suddenly got an idea.

"Octoronia! She can put it together," Maize snapped his fingers with the idea. He recalled his octoling friend and her sister being a pair of good inventors. If they assembled things on a regular basis then weapons should be a cakewalk for them. He went and grabbed a box from the side of his couch and set it by the coffee table, instantly swiping everything off of it, and into the box with a loud clatter. He closed the box and picked it up.

"Mollusk Metropolis! Here I come!" Maize hummed, grabbing his octoling goggles from the counter before happily heading out the door. He was feeling a lot more energetic since he got out of the hospital, mostly because he hated lying in bed for long periods of time and doing nothing. It almost drove him crazy. He needed a proper weapon before he went on any more missions, since going unarmed lately had turned up poor results.

Maize had carried the box all the way to the Inkopolis Main Plaza. Here there was a cleaning job still going under way, despite the attack on the Splatfest happening a week ago. All of this ink was going to take some time to clean up. Everyone in the plaza seemed happy, despite the events a week ago. Maize, after viewing all of this, approached the hatch by the vending machines. He rested the box aside and used both hands to open the hatch up. He grabbed the weapon box before he climbed inside, letting go and falling within, the hatch slamming shut loudly behind him.

Maize was happily entering into Octo Valley. When he arrived to the all too familiar setting, he had to pull himself out of the pipe. His body had not entirely recovered yet. It still felt like his own muscles were fighting against him and demanding more rest.

"Ey, squiddo! You come to visit?" Captain Cuttlefish greeted. Agent 3 smirked, though saw a checkerboard on a small table set up between the elder and DJ Octavio. Of course the octopus did not look anywhere entertained, that same furious glare being focused on them.

"Sorry, cap'n. I'm just passing through. I need to head to Mollusk Metropolis. Do you have my helmet? I left it here when I last left," Maize requested. Captain Cuttlefish seemed disappointed at the lack of being visited, but he rarely ever felt ignored, thanks to his grandsquids and their dear friend.

"I found a black helmet the other day. By the by, you did great saving the Splatfest. If I had known what was going on, I'd have to have joined you in fighting," the captain exclaimed. He felt nothing but pure anger, not just toward Cornell, but also himself. He had let Callie and Marie get into danger like that while he was completely oblivious, but he could not hold it against himself. Someone had to watch Bondi, after all.

"I promised I'd be there if Callie or Marie ever needed help, and I didn't plan to let them down," Maize saluted, the elder squid lightly laughing as he went over to a small basket nearby full of various items. He gathered the random trinkets and gadgets that fell into Octo Valley from all around. It took a moment, but he pulled out the familiar black helmet, presenting it to Agent 3.

"Thank you, cap'n! I'll handle more missions once I handle my business in Mollusk Metropolis," Maize thanked him while taking the black helmet and beginning to stuff his tentacles into it so to hide them. He hated having to disguise like this, but he had no choice. He took his glasses off his face, before pulling out the octoling goggles and putting them on as well.

"I really owe you a lot, squiddo. For someone so young, you have enough experience to be as old as me," Captain Cuttlefish smiled. That statement hit a little close to home. The yellow inkling shook his head in disagreement.

"I already owe you a lot. I'll be back later. You take care," Maize bid him farewell before beginning to walk away, having to find the other hatch to get to Mollusk Metropolis. Captain Cuttlefish returned to his game of checkers, looking down at the board before back up to the still angry trapped octopus.

"Hey… how'd you jump four of my pieces in a row?"

Maize did not take long before he began to go through the long pipe so he could get into Mollusk Metropolis. The trip there looked beautiful alone, seeing all the nature that had been blooming into the pipe. When he reached the end of the tunnel he saw that all too familiar lantern, as if it was left there as a metaphor for the light at the end of the tunnel. Maize could see that forest beneath him at the bottom of the Cliff side. Being here brought back the memories of the time a week ago before the Splatfest attack occurred.

"Hm… how am I going to find Octoronia?" Maize asked himself. He had no idea how he would find the two octolings that he had made great friends with. He regretted not sharing his phone number now with each of the Special Squid Service's clients, that or start carrying business cards. He made a mental note to discuss that with the Squid Sisters sometime. Business cards sounded like a great idea to him.

"Wait, what is that?" Maize tried to look off in the distance, wishing his vision was better when wearing the goggles, but from what he saw in the distance, there was smoke, and quite a lot of it. That was where Mollusk Metropolis was. He started running down the hill, feeling panicked. He hoped this was not bad but it was clear that a fire had broken out.

Maize continued running down the path through the forest. The closer he got to the octopus homeland, he could see much more octolings spending the time in the forest, their expressions ranging from annoyed to depressed. It only took a few minutes afterwards, but he at last arrived into Mollusk Metropolis. Three buildings were caught in a furious blaze. Somehow a fire had broken out, and the natural vines and wildlife growing on the buildings made the flames spread fast. Maize could see the worst of the fires at the apartment complex in the center. Beside that were two small shops that had the misfortune of being caught in the flames. The squid could see octolings already trying to put out the fire.

"What happened here?!" Maize inquired from the first octoling bystander he could find, who was a boy in a school uniform staring into the flames in awe. He focused his attention on him.

"I think someone left their oven on when they left their home. The apartments all have a strong water system for fires, but the tank on the roof must have gotten clogged," the octoling explained what he thought happened. The emergency sprinklers and other water based protection plans for the apartment were not working. It was scary for Maize to know this. The two small buildings looked like they would be easy to put the fire out on, but the apartment did not look like it would be easy. The inkling had an idea, dropping his box containing the splatterscope parts on the ground.

"Why do I keep pressing my luck…?" Maize sighed in frustration, but his brain was focused on his idea and he could not back down on it, knowing other octolings lives were in danger. He saw a small river of water that had been pouring from upstream. Nature really was working perfectly with Mollusk Metropolis. Maize quickly dived into the water with a light splash. He had barely submerged himself for a minute before he was quickly pulling himself out, having soaked his entire body. He began to run straight toward the apartment complex.

"He-hey! Wait! You're going to get burnt!" one of the firefighting octolings shouted, trying to stop him. Maize had ran through the burning front door, relying on his soaked clothes and body to protect him, his goggles shielding his eyes. The apartment entrance lobby was toasted, or better yet overcooked. The ceiling was collapsed with multiple pieces of destroyed furniture. He headed straight for the stairs, heading up to the next floor.

"Help!" Maize heard a female voice, looking down the apartment hall. He could see another octoling in a white dress in the flames. She was trapped under the collapsed floor. He quickly got to the other side of the hole.

"Hey! Jump over! I've got you!" Maize insisted. The octoling needed to trust him on this. It was either burn alive or risk gaining an injury trying to escape. He watched as she took a step back, and she began to charge, leaping over the hole in the floor. The yellow inkling thankfully grabbed her by her arms, pulling her up to safety.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" the octoling girl immediately ran off down the steps to escape the flames. Maize hoped she would be fine, aware that the entrance was the only way out at this point. Whoever the designer for this apartment complex was did not even consider a fire escape, which could feel insulting to those who lived here. Maize could hear the wood of the ceiling creaking. It was close to falling on top of him. Agent 3 continued up the steps, beginning to sweat, feeling the heat overwhelming him. The water he was drenched in had quickly dried up.

"Almost… there…" Maize coughed. He began to feel the smoke entering his lungs as he got past the third floor, nearing the fourth. Once he got up there, he could see the wooden door at the end of the hall on the fourth door with a sign that read 'Roof Access'. It had been super heated now that he could not even touch it without burning himself. The yellow squid bit his lip, going straight for it. He grabbed the doorknob, feeling it sting and burn the palm of his hand. He jerked it open before continuing up the steps, doing his best to ignore the red hot pain.

"Finally!" Maize coughed, gasping for fresh air now that he was on the roof. He shut the door to the roof behind him. He had ran through that burning apartment, and the exercise did not help his breathing issues. He could see a huge circular object that he presumed to be the water storage unit. It looked full, at least. He began to look around the roof at one of the corners. He found a crowbar being left lying carelessly around with a tool kit.

"Here we… go!" Maize jumped up, swinging at the water tank and denting it hard. He swung again, bashing another dent into it. This time water began to slowly lightly pour out. He had to do this, and quick. If he stopped now, he would be leaving who knew how many mollusk lives were in danger. He pulled back and swung as hard as he could, bashing the water tank one more time with his crowbar. There was only one second moment of silence, until the huge dent began to rip open, as well as the entire water tank.

"Waaah!" Maize got drenched in water as it all began to pour out, flooding the entire roof. The water strongly poured off the sides of the roof. The flames were then drenched and suppressed under the practical tidal wave that flooded the inside of the building. It took only a minute, and the yellow squid had to survive, holding his breath and trying not to get washed off the roof. The fire was almost completely gone thanks to his actions.

"Gah!" Maize gasped, spitting out water that had forced its way down his throat and nose. He began to hear cheering, which confused him. Agent 3 stood up, approaching the ledge of the rooftop and looking down into the streets. He could see all of the octolings cheering for him for putting out the fire. The firefighters were now finishing it off to make sure the blaze did not rekindle. Maize recognized two familiar friends in the crowd, and he began to move toward the roof access, wanting to climb out of the now water and fire damaged apartment complex. He was thankful to have been of help, but something felt entirely unnatural behind this fire. He hoped to find some information out from his fellow agents.


	22. Blazing out of control

Maize had made his way down out of the apartment complex that had become fire and water damaged, but he was happy to have helped save the day. The yellow inkling arrived outside the still cheering crowd, but they assumed the hero was on the rooftop. The anonymous hero had to give in to being anonymous again. He went and grabbed his box full of the splatterscope parts.

"Maize!" he heard, smiling as he went through to the back of the crowd. He saw his familiar friends, Octoronia and her robotic sister ECO. The two seemed enthralled to see him again.

"Hey there, you two," he greeted Agents 4 and 5, when he got pulled into a tight hug by ECO, feeling her arms crushing his back and making his injuries hurt.

"Ow-ow!" he cried.

"You saved the day before we could even get here!" Octoronia laughed, seeing her robotic sibling's warm greeting to the inkling. The two of them had come here immediately when they heard a fire broke out, not as a mission from the Special Squid Services but they had originally planned to get here when they heard about the fire. Their friend however beat them to the punch.

"Can't… breathe…!" Maize gasped. ECO let go of him, finally letting him catch his breath. She looked embarrassed, not meaning to have brought him any harm.

"What brings you back to Mollusk Metropolis? Are you on a mission?" ECO asked. He quickly regained his composure, rubbing his head, presenting the box to her.

"No, I came to visit you two! I need some help building a new splatterscope," Maize answered. He didn't want to make up a horrible lie that he only came to see them when he had no idea where the two even lived. The octoling took the box, peeking inside to see the tiny parts and pieces.

"Well… yes, I can put this together with ease, but me and ECO have a mission," Octoronia apologized. She had to focus on the mission that she and her mechanical sibling had accepted. The light on ECO's chest was blue, indicating that she seemed upset about this topic.

"Err… well, I can help you two out. What kind of agent would I be to not help out?" Maize offered his assistance. This sounded like a big deal, but for some reason, he had a feeling that it was related to the fire that had broken out here. Something felt so unnatural about the blaze. The three began to walk along the streets, him following along.

"So what's going on?" Maize asked them to explain. Octoronia was fiddling around with the contents of the box, leaving it to her sister to do the talking.

"There have been a number of fires in the last two days. Five fires have broken out. It's complicated, but it's beginning to cause a lot of damage to the southern metropolis area," ECO elaborated. Maize was surprised to hear about the chain of arsons. He never could imagine that these raging infernos kept escalating and getting worse with each one.

"The problem isn't the fires themselves. Well no, they do cause a lot of damage… but the problem is the arsonist who's doing this," Octoronia added, continuing to lead their squid friend, planning on taking him to their home. They loved having him around as a guest. He made things slightly more cheerful and relaxed to know they had help.

"What? So you're telling me there are arsonists that aren't problems?" Maize jokingly retorted. The two of them seemed to share the same straight faced reaction on the matter.

"The arsonist is the one who gave us a mission," ECO claimed. Now Maize was completely lost. Could he go one mission without something crazy or hard to understand, they all got so confusing. Nothing was straight forward or simple. The simplest mission he assumed to ever have was finding Bondi's parents, and that still was a confusing matter to investigate. His cellphone suddenly began ringing.

"Y'ello?" he answered.

"Hey Maize! We, uh, need some help," Callie's voice chimed up. She didn't sound too good, which worried him. Agents 4 and 5 stayed quiet to let him handle the call.

"What's going on?" Maize requested her to go on, only to hear the sound of an ink grenade exploding, followed by the struggled grunts of some poor squid being splattered brutally.

"Well, me and Marie accepted some missions. We got the first few done easy, but the sixth got out of hand," Callie explained what been going on. The famous squid was stuck alone at Blackbelly Skate Park which was normally used like a turf war hot spot, but now she was just trapped there holding a roller, wearing her disguise. His eyes went wide hearing this.

"Wh-what?! What kind of mission is it you're on?" Maize asked in shock, hearing another explosion of ink as Callie was moving to a new position to take cover behind. She wished she had brought Marie closer to her, but right now her cousin was stuck behind a half pipe, trying to snipe with her charger, but they were being pinned down heavily.

"This old squid's most valuable collection got taken from him. They were antique moustache combs," Callie responded. ECO and Octoronia saw Maize facepalm hard. Of course being an agent for the Special Squid Services meant helping out any squid in need, Maize knew that much, but he could not believe what he had just heard. His best friends were in danger over a collection of moustache combs. He was about to pop a gasket, but he could not abandon the octolings when this kind of matter was going on. But Maize recalled his promise to always be there whenever the Squid Sisters needed him. Suddenly, he had an idea.

"Callie! Just hang on…" Maize reassured, before hanging up. He began to see a house nearby that belonged to Octoronia and ECO. The yellow squid quickly pulled up his contact list, smiling as he hit the dial button. He heard it ringing, just hoping they will answer.

"Hello! This is Fallow!" a very happy voice rung in response. Maize smirked, hearing that cheerful tone.

"Hey! Sorry to bug ya, but I need a favor," Maize claimed. This Fallow girl was very close to him. He did not like to bother her if he could help it, but this was a matter he had no chance to aid in. He was miles too far away from Inkopolis to be of use.

"A request? Oh, yours always are the best!" she chimed. Maize chuckled, hearing those rhymes fiddle with his ears, just waiting outside to let Octoronia and ECO continue into their home. They were going to wait for him inside and get prepared to explain it all to him.

"My friends are in trouble at Blackbelly Skate park. Can you bail'em out? I'm tied up at the moment…" the yellow squid explained. Already he could hear clattering and rattling that could only be described as items being gathered hastily.

"The skate park? Oh yes, I'll do it whether it's bright or dark! I'll complete your favor and be their savior!" Fallow happily agreed, sounding all but eager to get in on some action. He didn't even get to say anything more before he heard the phone cut off. He rolled his eyes.

"She better not accidentally splat them," Maize hoped to himself, not wanting the most dependable person he could call to accidentally cause more trouble. He entered into the small home to regroup with the octolings. It was a basic one story house that was big in size, but he had a feeling to be cautious, seeing various parts lying around. Any pictures on the walls seemed to either be blueprints, or photographs of a younger Octoronia, and a few photographs of her and ECO.

"You finally caught up. This way, please," the metallic octoling welcomed him into their home. Maize was glad to follow down the hallway which led to the living room. This place appeared to be more like a workshop, the wall being covered in tools, a lot of which he had never seen before. There were a few chairs resting in front of a television they looked comfortable enough. He set his focus on an octoling in light grey clothing, with blue colored tentacles that looked like they had not been taken care of for days.

"Finally! Maize, this is Humboldt," Octoronia introduced them. The octoling boy stood up, shaking Maize's hand. He looked very desperate, and sleep deprived.

"It's nice to meet you, Maize. I'm grateful you great octopi are willing to help someone as horrible as me," Humboldt bowed. Maize cast a confused glance to his friends, seeing ECO's light change to yellow. She was unsure emotionally on how to explain this, deciding to be straight forward on the matter since the inventor octopus was busy. She was lying the splatterscopes parts out so now they were spread out on the workbench for later.

"He is the arsonist," the robotic octoling exclaimed. If Maize had a weapon on him he would already have splattered this man in a heartbeat, or slathered in octoling terms.

"Err…" Maize had no way of replying.

"Please do not judge me that harshly! I am not proud of it, either. But she isn't wrong. I have been the one that has caused the recent chain of fires and been causing damage to our beautiful city," Humboldt confessed. He seemed quite apologetic for being an arsonist. But Maize was more confused for other reasons, doubting a criminal would turn themselves in so easily, but this fire bug was the one who gave them a mission, so he had to be calm on this matter.

"So why did you do it?" Maize asked, the blue octoling twiddling his thumbs nervously. This was an upsetting topic for him. He was not a criminal at heart, so much so that he just hated to be one.

"You see… I've not had the calmest week. I was worried I was being stalked, and sadly, I was correct. One night, when I came home, I found a note in my blobbie's crib, leaving instructions on what to do, I had left him with a sitter of course. But it had happened without her even realizing it." Humboldt explained, rummaging around in his pockets before presenting a yellow piece of paper. It depicted plans to design a timer device to delay the fires' initial ignition. It sure seemed complex but easy to make.

"Blobbie?" Maize quirked, unsure what a blobbie was. He was not completely adjusted to octolings different choices in words yet. He knew they used crisp instead of fresh, and slather instead of splatter, but he couldn't think of anything that could be like a blobbie.

"Oh! Blobbies are newborn octolings. You see, when an aroused male octoling inserts…" ECO tried to explain, but Maize covered her mouth, hearing her voice box get garbled up.

"Thank you, ECO," he simply said, trying to give a subtle signal to not try and explain reproduction. At least the robotic octoling was not hesitant to be informative.

"Sorry. Her mind wanders a little. ECO and I have been trying to help find out where this stalker took his blobbie, but every lead we find leads us into a dead end, or is ordered to be burnt down by Humboldt," Octoronia claimed. It was really a puzzling situation which was going to be hard to solve. Every time they tried to get closer to finding the stalker, there was nothing, and then shortly after, Humboldt received another plan to burn down the exact location that the octolings had just investigated.

"I implore you, I know I can't be forgiven for what I've done. Without my girlfriend around anymore, all I have left is Octon. I don't think I'll be able to live any longer if I have to start walking into a completely empty home," Humboldt repeated his plight. Maize had no plans of ignoring this. He could not stand idly by and let the older octopus be given yet another target to burn.

"Your son will be safe. I can promise you that," Maize smiled. He could not live with himself if he allowed the last of this man's family to be taken from him, and he sure had no intention to allow this metaphorical fire to go out of control any longer.

"How can someone seem so nervous, yet so brave?" ECO commented, feeling her sister bump her with her elbow. Maize rubbed his head, unsure. The robot octoling was dead on with that comment. He didn't wish rely on his own luck if he could help it. They had to begin preparing and try to come up with a plan on how to handle this problem. Maize felt horrible to have left the Squid Sisters in such a serious position, but he knew Fallow to be reliable. He just had to hope everything will work out for them. The last of Humboldt's family was one problem, but Mollusk Metropolis was facing the unfortunate collateral damage of one insane stalker who seemed all but eager to put someone else to work and make them burn things for them.


	23. Rhyme and Find

**Authors note: Hi all! I hope you're not minding the daily updates, today is a slightly longer than normal chapter. I hope you enjoy! Have a good day and take care!**

"How many are left?" asked Callie. She and Marie were now stuck hiding inside the quarter pipe in Blackbelly Skate Park. Rainbows of ink flew past and landed around them. Both of them looked drained. Callie's grip was on her roller tightly, her ink tank being only half full. Marie rolled her eyes, aware that the enemies weren't going to rush in blindly, but knew her cousin was too afraid to look. She peeked her head up, aiming her charger.

"Six…" Marie let go of her charger, splattering one of their attackers before she returned to her cover, seeing more ink blotches get fired.

"Five now," she smiled. Callie felt a lot calmer since her cousin was here. She hated to imagine tackling these missions all alone. She mentally pondered if this is what Maize felt like most the time. All of this fighting had started over a bunch of valuable antique moustache combs. The Special Squid Services really did receive nothing but unusual requests. The two famous squids saw a triangular ink grenade roll into the quarter pipe.

"Another one?" Callie gulped, quickly getting up and grabbing Marie's hand, pulling her away. They watched as the ink grenade exploded, leaving behind a pond of pink ink. Marie looked to her cousin while being helped up.

"Are you sure Maize has help on the way?" Marie wanted to hear the same information Callie had claimed, that their dear friend was sending help. Her cousin nodded, but at this rate they would have to handle it themselves.

"Hey, hey! Can I play?" the Squid Sisters heard the odd rhyme, followed by an inkling screaming in surprise and being splattered. They both peeked from their hiding place to see a new inkling. It looked like a girl the same age as them, with light red tentacle hair that were quite long and wrapped around her arms. She was wearing a red bandanna on her head that had white striped patterns on it, and a green shirt that looked like a turtle shell. But there was something odd about the female inkling. She had a heavy black bag dangling over her shoulder and hanging off her side.

"Get outta here! We're busy!" one of the other inklings retorted, annoyed at how a random female squid appeared, wielding an ink brush and looking a bit annoyed by the response. The other inklings ignored her. Marie charged up her squiffer Jr and aimed it, firing. She hit one of the offensive inklings in the back, splattering them instantly.

"Why you…! That was a cheap shot, you barnacle!" another one chimed, angrily insulting the Squid Sisters. He was not pleased to see his friend get splattered when their guard was lowered. Now there was only four of them left.

"Dude! That's rude!" the bandanna wearing inkling rhymed before swinging her ink brush, smacking a big streak of light red ink all over the insulting squid and splattering him easily. The last three inklings opened fire on her, but she hit a button on her ink brush, watching a bubbler shield appear around her which blocked the open fire and let it all harmlessly hit the floor.

"Why do I feel more unsafe than before?" Callie looked to Marie, whispering. Her cousin pat her back, trying to reassure her that they were going to be fine.

"Come on. She's helping us so far," the white inkling pulled herself out of the quarter pipe before helping her cousin out. The two of them began to separate, while the light red squid's bubbler was close to wearing out.

"Sorry!" Callie apologized while jumping at one of the inklings. She raised her roller overhead and swung downwards, crushing them underneath her weapon and splattering them into a puddle of pink ink. Marie had snuck up on the other inkling and quickly smashed their ink tank with her squiffer Jr before he could make one move. The inkling, after realizing that he had no ammo, dropped his weapon and began to flee the skate park. The red squid pulled back her ink brush, about to swing it at the last inkling who had been too startled to move, but then Marie got between them.

"Wait! Don't Splatter him!" she insisted, making the eerily cheery girl pause her attack. Callie approached the last hostile squid, beginning to rummage around his backpack beside his ink tank and pulling out a small box.

"Okay. You can do it now," Callie smiled. In half a second, that inkling was splattered by the ink brush. Just like that, Blackbelly Skate Park was calm once more.

"Hey, thanks for the save," Marie extended her hand in offer to shake it, but the red inkling instead pulled her into a hug. Callie and her cousin were finding that this squid made the atmosphere more awkward. The famous squids were confused, but assumed this was who Maize sent to help them. If it was true, she was unbelievably friendly.

"Hehe! I'm Fallow! I am somewhat callow!" Fallow introduced herself excitedly. The two cousins watched as she put the ink brush on her back, and she rummaged around in her side bag, opening it. There was an oxygen tank in there and some other complicated piece of machinery. The red inkling put the oxygen mask onto her nose before pulling out two cords from the bag, reaching under her shirt and attaching them to something on the center of her chest.

"Are you okay?" Callie tilted her head concernedly. Clearly this inkling had some medical issues that just made them wonder more about her mental state of mind. This constant rhyming was becoming a bit annoying to Marie.

"Sorry, I don't like to make others worry! My bro called, so I hauled myself right over!" Fallow hummed. The Squid Sisters were more than happy to be saved, but were trying to just adapt to the strange behavior of hers. At least she had a cheery mindset going for her.

"Wait, wait… your brother? You're Maize's sister?" Marie quirked, having recalled a few times when Maize mentioned his older sibling. Fallow spun around, glad that her brother had not kept her hidden from his friends.

"Yup! I'm the sister, to that little mister!" Fallow agreed. She sure didn't come off as the older sibling type. The two cousins were glad to meet her, nonetheless, but they did wish the circumstances were a lot brighter than they were.

"So, uhh, how about you come with us to return these to their owner. You can rest at our place," Callie offered, not wanting to be rude to Maize's sister. It was obvious that she had run all the way here, she looked tired and overheated, and the medical equipment made Callie worry that they did more harm. Requesting help, putting stress on a sick individual made them both feel a bit horrible.

"Ohh! Can we get ice cream? I love the dream flavor special!" Fallow requested. Marie didn't like the look on her cousin's face at the mention of that special dream flavored ice cream. That look of her taste buds already lusting for it. The white squid couldn't deny that she felt similar, but sometimes she synced up too well with her cousin where they both coincidentally wanted to eat the same thing at times.

"Fine. We'll grab some on the way," Marie caved in. Two big smiles shined on both Callie and Fallow's faces. With that settled, the Squid Sisters began to make for the exit to Blackbelly Skate Park with Fallow in tow to return those valuable antique moustache combs to their rightful owner

Maize had been traveling on foot for a long way through the northern part of Mollusk Metropolis, with Octoronia and ECO alongside him. With his splatterscope still broken, he had to carry a slathershot mark two on his side with a yellow ink tank on his back. His octoling friends both carried slather blasters, since they were small and convenient to carry.

"So you're sure this is the best place to look right now?" Maize asked Agent 5. The robotic octoling nodded, her chest light turning green, indicating her joy for figuring out an idea for him.

"This is the only place in a twenty mile radius from Humboldt's home that carry the supplies needed to make these timer devices, and do not care how many are purchased," ECO exclaimed. It made sense in her head. The places Humboldt had to acquire the items to help start fires were not that hard to find, but to find them altogether without looking suspicious was another issue. A lot of the parts for the timers had a limit on how many could be purchased, yet it took multiple of each individual piece to complete. Whoever created them had to buy in huge bulk.

"Guess I can't argue with a robot," Maize chuckled. ECO smiled, seeing it as a compliment.

"She's 90% accurate with her plans, at least when there aren't unpredictable elements," Octoronia added. Maize did not even want to know what the odds were. Whoever the blobbie kidnapper was, he was probably the most unpredictable octopus in this entire city.

"Is that the place?" Maize asked, pointing ahead to a very old building that had a huge tree growing through the roof, its vines drooping all over it. In front was a generic sign that read, "Shop until you drop!"

"This place is not open for the next week…" Octoronia read the sign on the front door.

"Are you sure this place is even in business anymore?" Maize questioned. The store's outside looked like it had not been taken care of for quite some time, but then again, he presumed that was a downside to allowing nature to grow freely and choosing to live in harmony with it.

"Yeah. They just have careless workers…" ECO stated, unsure what they should do now. Agent 3 was trying to rack his brain for an idea, seeing one of the many vines dangling on the side of the building.

"Hey! Over here!" he smirked, motioning them over. He grabbed on the vine, beginning to pull himself up slowly. The vines felt slippery, but he was able to get a good enough grip. His two octoling friends slowly followed along.

"Whew…" Maize sighed in relief, once he was on the roof. The huge tree growing through the ceiling felt invigorating. It all felt like a reminder of what he was fighting for; to make sure no more fires broke out, and to keep the nature of this city alive, just like its inhabitants.

"Alright, grab my hand," he offered his hand. Both Octoronia and ECO grabbed his arm at the same time. He almost went tumbling off the roof. He grit his teeth and dug his feet onto the sides, pulling hard. He was barely able to keep it together until they grabbed onto the roof and pulled themselves up, once he helped them get high enough.

"Thank you!" Octoronia bowed to him, seeing him holding his left shoulder in agony while sitting on the ceiling, wondering what was wrong.

"O-ow… I-I think you dislocated my arm!" Maize exclaimed. He couldn't move his left arm well at all. The robotic octoling and her sisters' combined weight had really done a number on him. ECO got behind him, grabbing his forearm and putting a hand on his back.

"I have medical information in my databanks. I warn you to cover your ears," ECO claimed. The yellow inkling looked at her confusedly.

"Wa-wait what do ya mean?" he wondered, "I can't cover my…"

"The warning was not for you," ECO pulled hard, Octoronia covered her ears and turned away from the two. Maize let out a howl of pain that echoed loudly throughout the area with a loud snap and another surge of pain. The moment of excruciating pain aside, his arm was fixed. He felt the mechanical octoling pat his helmet covered head.

"Please quit screaming. I've had to do that a lot to Octoronia," the robot claimed while they were approaching the hole in the ceiling. Maize felt nothing but pain at the moment, but he just hoped his arm would not get dislocated again.

"She's right. It happens a lot if you don't watch what you invent," Octoronia giggled.

"Please! I want to move on from the pain," Maize begged, not wanting to talk about it anymore. He jumped across the hole in the ceiling, latching onto the tree and then sliding down slowly. Agent 4 looked to the mechanical octoling before she proceeded to do the same.

"Wow it's a lot easier to break and enter into shops than I thought it was," Octoronia spoke, clearly not caring much when it came to speaking her mind. ECO fell through the hole in the ceiling, having missed the jump. She fell into the ground, leaving an imprint in the floor.

"Ow…" ECO cried, the light on her chest being blue. Octoronia face palmed before going to help her sister. Maize knew it was time to investigate for clues. He began to browse through the aisles, looking at the piece of paper that Humboldt had given them which were the key parts for the fire ignition timer. Agents 4 and 5 eventually joined along with him

"Uh… Maize, the candles are all gone" Octoronia's head poked up from the next aisle which confused him. He looked down, seeing an almost empty shelf for something called Octojelly. There was only one jar remaining. He picked up the jar, observing the substance that seemed like regular mushy fruit for food that someone would give to a very young squishie, or in Mollusk Metropolis's case, a blobbie.

"I'll hold onto this for Callie… maybe Bondi will like it," Maize thought, pocketing the jar of food. ECO looked up on one of the higher shelves.

"All match boxes have been taken too," ECO added onto the list of entirely missing items, presenting a small cardboard box that was supposed to be full of the tiny match booklets. Wherever they looked, the more they noticed empty sections of shelves.

"How many fire timers could someone make out of these?" Maize asked. Octoronia bit her thumb, trying to rush the math along in her head. ECO was tilting her head left and right, having no clue.

"It seems like they're not just making the ones on the list. Since it seems like they're making new types to be stronger, I guess maybe half of it with a lot of work would make at least fifty in a week," Octoronia spoke her answer, if her math was correct. Even if it was wrong, that sounded horrifying. Maize wondered what they could do. This was getting out of hand, and they could presume that Humboldt would be forced to do all the dirty work just at the threat of his son being in danger. It was safe to assume that the jars of fruit sauce taken was for Humboldt's kidnapped blobbie Octon to consume.

"Well, great. The whole place is ransacked, and this store's been closed for the week! Who knows when the lunatic broke in and took all this stuff!?" Maize kicked over a shelf, frustrated with himself. He felt like everything was stacking against him lately on the missions. He suddenly felt ECO hug him from behind, her chest light glowing pink.

"Please remain calm. Your heartbeat no longer needs to race. We still have yet to look at the security footage, right?" ECO reminded them of the possibility that the security cameras, which were very well hidden from plain sight, had caught something.

"Heh… you're right. Thanks," Maize adjusted his goggles, wishing he could wear his glasses instead, but he was thankful for her calming him down. They looked over at the back room, hoping to get in there easily. They had to find a way to wherever the security footage was recorded and look over the entire week of footage. Agents 3, 4 and 5 began to make their way into the back room to try and find where the security system monitored everything in the store.


	24. Blobbie found

Maize had went to another room of the store that had been presumably robbed. They were planning to check the security cameras. But when they got to the door that would take them to the next room, it was locked. A chair rested nearby with metal legs, and there was a small glass window that they could see through.

"How do we get in?" Maize wondered aloud. This was how they needed to view the security footage, if they wanted any hope of finding out the one controlling the strings behind the causes of these fires. The longer they waited, the more likely Humboldt will receive another demand to go torch a new location. It was a lot of pressure to have on them for a mission. He hoped the octoling agents had not had to deal with this kind of stress thus far.

"Well I can try to find a key to get inside," Octoronia suggested, "The manager's office might have…"

A loud shattering noise stopped her. She and Maize turned around to see ECO, who was holding the chair and standing in shards of glass, having used it to bash in the window. She dropped the chair and reached inside, unlocking the door.

"It was an emergency," ECO claimed, seeing the looks on her sister and friend's face. Maize just brushed it off, hoping there was not any silent alarm alerting authorities to the break in. They entered the room, where there was two small televisions that looked out of date in front of a wooden chair, and were hooked up to a VHS player.

"Wow. I haven't seen one of these in forever," Octoronia had an odd gleam in her eyes like she had taken apart tons of video tape players in the past. She took a seat she began to fiddle with the controls to rewind the tape. Maize let her do it, having no idea how she and ECO would not want to risk breaking the only chance they had to view the possible stalker.

"Hey! Something's there," Maize pointed to the security monitor. After the tape was rewound forty-eight hours, or in which case two days, Octoronia stopped it and hit play. There was one male octoling and a female octoling on screen, both of who entered through the very tree like they had done earlier. The girl octopus was beginning to fill up one of many bags with the stolen store supplies. However the male seemed to only fill the bag with that very fruit mush for young ones. When he turned his back on screen, ECO spotted something.

"Pause it! Look at his back," ECO pointed out, her chest light being blue in concern. Her sister stopped the tape. They all could see what the robot had noticed.

"Oh… gosh," Maize said. The male octoling had a harness wrapped around his body, and on his back was a very cute and round looking newborn blobbie. It was playing with something in its tentacles. This was a good thing that Octon the blobbie was unharmed.

"What is he playing with?" Octoronia tilted her head. The blobbie had a small piece of paper in its tentacles like it was its entertainment during the movement. However he let it slip from his grip and watch it fall on the ground. It only took a short time after for the two pilferers to leave the same way they came bags filled with the items. They needed to make stronger ignition timers. Maize left the security room, heading back to the same aisle that was shown on the footage.

"It was somewhere down here…" Maize went onto his stomach, reaching under the shelf, feeling layers of dust being left unclean. A few roots were growing through the tiled floor. He finally got what he was searching for.

"There it is!" he pulled out the piece of paper, looking at it. The paper seemed to be a piece of a map that was wrinkled crumpled up. He did his best to smoothen it, Agents 4 and 5 coming to see what had gotten his attention. He noticed the two behind him and presented it to them.

"Hey, where is this map of?" Maize asked, ECO taking the piece and looking over it with her sister.

"I think it's five miles north from that apartment you helped put out," Octoronia claimed. Maize could notice random X marks on the map at certain buildings, and a big circle around a depiction of a factory in the center.

"You think this is their hideout?" ECO quirked. The factory was the only place without an X mark on it. If that was true, then maybe they got lucky with the blobbie grabbing the map piece like it was a toy.

"Even if it isn't this is our only real lead, we'll take it… c'mon," Maize took the map back and pocketed it. He went over to the tree growing from the center, and then grabbed onto it, beginning to make the effort to climb out.

"Is blind hope really the best motivator?" ECO questioned her sister. Octoronia shook her head, claiming that was not what motivated him.

"I don't know why, but promises are all he needs to keep on going," Octoronia explained to the robotic octoling. It was cheesy, but inspirational. The two of them began to climb up shortly after he reached the rooftop, but this time the inkling had no intention of helping them up and dislocating his arm again. Once all three of them were outside of the store, they proceeded to run back to the southern part of Mollusk Metropolis, wanting to investigate the factory as soon as they could.

Agents 3, 4 and 5 ran all the way back to the southern part of Mollusk Metropolis, having traveled far past the burnt apartment complex. The two octolings were feeling quite unsure how to feel to have a practical leader, even if it was only temporary, but they were happy to have their friend around.

"What did this factory use to make?" Maize asked as they were nearing the factory. By the looks of the area, it was not running anymore.

"I believe it was set to produce a variety of furniture and other products, but the workers hated having to adjust constantly to new mass productions," Octoronia answered. Maize could understand why those factory workers quit. It would be easy to find another factory job, and one that would be less taxing on its employees.

"It closed only a year ago," ECO added as they could see it in the near distance. Those smoke stacks were inactive, but still aimed up high. The three could see many kinds of oddities around, but they tried to ignore it. The factory had a huge door at the front of it, as well as vines growing around it. Maize tapped his chin, trying to find out how to open it. Lately he had been messing up a lot, and he was aware of that, but he did not want to give up on his luck yet.

"Side window," ECO quickly said, going to one of the many windows on the side that were there in a row. She put her metal fingers together. Maize grinned, putting his foot in the palm of her hand. She lifted him up high enough so he could reach the window. He jumped up and grabbed on, gritting his teeth. He panted once he got inside.

"There we go," Maize sighed in relief, having been worried that he would have falling down. He saw Octoronia get tossed up next. She groaned once inside, but then went back to the window, reaching down and helping pull up her metallic sister. Maize crouched down, beginning to carefully sneak around, hearing the sound of loud banging.

"Slow down!" ECO chimed up as quietly as she could, drawing more attention to Maize. He put his finger over his mouth to be completely quiet.

"Sorry. Just worried about all of this," Maize apologized for almost rushing it, then felt Agent 4 pat his back. She was aware of how annoying it is to know that these horrible igniter timers were being made and could harm so many while ruining part of Mollusk Metropolis. He did not want the octolings inhabiting it to be terrified of their home's environment, the very nature they actively worked with daily to live in harmony. This factory was big in size on the inside. They had to be a bit slower than usual. The sound of that loud banging was still going on, but they were beginning to get closer to the source of that noise.

"Hey! Occi! Can you stop with that for a bit?" they heard a deep voice ring out from around the next corner. The three agents decided to take a peek. It looked like they were right about the hideout of this team of arsonists. They saw the same octolings they had witnessed on the security camera. When the loud noise stopped from attempting to construct more fire igniters, they could hear the sounds of crying.

"Ocoto, what is it now?! We could've had this done two days ago if you'd just help me and not make me stop," Occi replied, throwing one of her tools on the ground in anger. For a team, the two of them weren't working very well together at all.

"Well I'm sorry! But someone has to take care of the blobbie," Ocoto retorted. They witnessed the argument just go on and on. It seemed like an almost normal thing to come from them. Octoronia got out from their hiding place while the two were distracted. Maize let her go off toward the sound of the crying to try and get the blobbie so that it would not be hurt.

"Ready?" Maize asked ECO.

"Ready…" the robotic octoling got out her weapon. They both got ready and took aim at the arguing octopi, and they began to fire yellow and purple ink at them. They missed a lot, but they landed a couple of shots on them.

"Ow! What the-!?" Ocoto jumped over one of the assembly lines and took cover. Occi grabbed her own slather blaster with an ink tank nearby, beginning to fire back, forcing Maize to take cover as he watched pink ink land across from them. ECO had taken cover. Now they were stuck, hiding until they had an opening, a position the yellow squid had felt all too often. Ocoto meanwhile was moving and switching positions.

Octoronia had slowly walked while crouching behind many of the big pieces of machinery. She felt like the crying kept getting louder and echoing throughout the factory. Finally she came across a table flipped upside down with a blanket wrapped around the legs, and pillows padding the bottom of it like a makeshift crib. The octoling girl lifted up her goggles so they would be on her forehead, looking into the makeshift crib where the crying had been coming from.

"Aw… hey there little guy," Octoronia greeted, seeing the very blobbie who had been abducted from its home. She saw the poor snivelling baby octopus, reaching inside and picked him up. She felt his tentacles wrapping onto her arm and her chest, and he nuzzled into her, calming down a little.

"Hey, hey, it's alright now… your dad sent us to save you," she spoke, just before she began to hear footsteps. She kept Octon close while grabbing her weapon, but he seemed to be doing a good job keeping a grip on her.

"Keep away from that baby!" Ocoto's voice rung out as he approached, opening fire and spraying purple ink at them. Octoronia kicked up the makeshift crib and took cover behind it, watching it get stained with ink. The blobbie began crying once more, being startled by the shouting.

"Sheesh… I hate to imagine what your dad puts up with," Octoronia told the blobbie jokingly. She raised her arm over the table, firing blindly and missing horribly. Now all three of the agents were stuck in rough positions, they couldn't just take the blobbie and run. These people were trigger-happy maniacs, and if these enemies left this building, who knew where they would go to. They had a lot in mind for these fires. Maize, ECO and Octoronia had to get their bearings on this situation before they could do anything. Maize himself had no intention of letting any of them get away.


	25. Arrest

Maize, ECO and Octoronia had all gotten pinned into a standoff with the ones who had forced Humboldt into starting these fires. Occi was firing an endless supply of ink. It made them wonder how many ink tanks these bad octarians had.

"Try and keep'er busy. I'll try and sneak up on her," Maize told ECO. The robotic inkling nodded, opening fire and spraying purple ink, making the other octoling immediately return to her protective cover. Maize began to move along one of the sides of the assembly lines, his slather blaster ready. He then noticed Octoronia in the near distance, that crying started again from the blobbie.

Maize made his way toward her, beginning to sneak up on Ocoto who was preparing to throw an ink grenade. He was about to toss it when the yellow squid grabbed his arm, making him drop it before he slammed him against the assembly line.

"Grah!" Ocoto's ink tank got smashed by Maize. The ink grenade was about to blow so he kicked it away, letting it blow up harmlessly over to the side. Now that she and the blobbie were safe, Octoronia stood up, approaching while the blobbie who still kept his tentacles tightly on her. She did not mind though.

"I'll make sure he doesn't go anywhere," Octoronia claimed, her weapon aimed right for Ocoto. The enemy sighed, just sitting on the floor and admitting defeat. He didn't ever seem truly interested in anything more than taking care of the blobbie, so the Special Squid Services agents were going to take it easier on him if they could. Maize made a rush back to try and help ECO.

"Where'd she go?" ECO wondered, her chest light being green, thinking Maize had gotten the surprise on the other octopus. The robotic octoling stood up from her cover when she suddenly heard footsteps. She turned around to get smashed in the face, falling onto her back.

"Ow! That's dirty fighting!" ECO whined, aiming her weapon at Occi and firing, but she saw no ink coming out. One look underneath her and there was a puddle of purple ink. Now she realized she had cracked her ink tank on the fall.

"That's the only type of fighting here, bolthead!" Occi grinned, firing. She hit the robotic octoling with multiple ink blasts, though there was no way for ECO to really be splattered. She began to shut down from being hit too much. Octoronia had programmed that to make it fair in games, never really taking into consideration that she and her sister would wind up in these kinds of situations.

"Get off her!" Maize shouted and fired his yellow ink, hitting Occi in the leg and arm. It burnt and forced her onto one knee. She tried to aim at him and fire, but he threw himself to the floor, landing on his stomach. He did not want to splatter either of the real arsonists. He blasted the weapon out of the octoling's hand. Although she tried to grab for it, Maize got back up onto his feet and quickly charged at her, tackling her from behind and onto the ground.

"Agh…! I think you broke a rib…" Occi coughed, aware she had lost. Maize stood up and kicked her ink tank, breaking it into pieces and letting the ink pour out onto her. He felt embarrassed to have caused that kind of mess. He saw Octoronia coming over, Ocoto in front of her with his hands tied together with his own tentacles. Thankfully they were long, but it still hurt.

"Whew… you did great," Maize gave a thumbs up. Octoronia nodded, smiling. She could not return the thumbs up as the blobbie was limiting her left arm's movement a lot. Thankfully his crying had stopped, now that everything had calmed down.

"Uhh, can you reactivate her? I have my hands full…" the inventor octoling requested, keeping her weapon aimed on both of the arsonists, having made them just take seats by the nearby wall. Maize approached the non-functional robotic octoling, going on his knees beside her with his weapon on his side.

"Alright… err, how do I turn her back on?" Maize asked doubting it was as simple as flipping a switch.

"Open her chest and spin her emotional cortex. It'll get everything going," she explained. Maize felt awkward already, not wanting to go feeling around in her chest like surgery. He already felt like a pervert for considering lifting her shirt.

"Maybe we can trade places…"

"Oh for- you have my permission. Just do it," Octoronia rolled her eyes.

"Okay, fine…!" he groaned, lifting up the robot's shirt, keeping his eyes closed until he opened up her chest, seeing the many complicated wires and gadgets. He looked close to the core at the center. No lights on it at all. He grabbed the sphere and spun it gently, watching the many colored lights appear for a brief moment before vanishing. When the ball stopped spinning, nothing happened.

"You've got to do it harder than that," ECO's sister chimed. That did not help with Maize's flushed cheeks. He hated this kind of feeling. He used to be married over a week ago, it felt wrong to be in this kind of position, but he constantly kept reminding himself that she was a machine.

"Alright, please stop talking…" he requested, grabbing the ball and spinning it harder, watching the lights glow. He spun it again, seeing the sphere begin to spin on its own, the bright colored lights showing. He watched ECO open her eyes, the light turning to green. She seemed happy to be operating again until she saw the inkling over her, the light changing to pink.

"…am I supposed to thank you or slap you?" ECO questioned.

"Your choice," Maize just covered his eyes, letting her close her chest and fix her shirt back to normal. Octoronia snickered at the scene, finding it quite cute.

"Now then… we gotta take these two to the authorities," the inventor octoling stated, seeing the two arsonists giving the same annoyed look. They had plenty of evidence that these two were behind it. The security tape at the store and Humboldt himself would be pretty decisive on that matter.

"Before we go, I gotta ask why. What's the point of burning these places down? You're ruining the beauty and the land," Maize demanded an answer, now that they were past that awkward moment.

"The buildings were just what we had to do. Mollusk Metropolis is connected everywhere with nature. Every tree considered to be cut down has to be discussed with a judge legally, and every apartment is a pain to get approved," Ocoto started, looking to Occi for the matter. If either of the arsonists started blaming each another for starting to do this much damage, Maize was going to splat them.

"It's a lot easier to burn things and claim it as accident. On top of that, when a buildings destroyed, we get new jobs to build for," Occi continued. They did this out of nothing but self-gain. Maize felt his anger intensify. Nothing but greed; that was all that drove them nuts. He approached and grabbed the male octoling by his shirt.

"You're an idiot! There's a reason this place has nature! There is not a lot of the world left! You're helping damage what remains!" Maize threw him back, slamming him into the wall.

"He is correct. You are the type that seem too self-destructive," ECO claimed. The inkling was not wrong. The world had been flooded. What little land remained had been populated and fought for immensely. Things were settled between octarians and inklings somewhat and the water was lowering some, and more land was beginning to appear as such, but as for the extent of nature or what other types of beings were out there in the world, not many knew how much was left. No octolings nor inklings could survive in salt water, which was most of the ocean now. If they landed within it, they would be splattered in seconds.

"You brought a blobbie and his father into danger too! You two aren't going to get out of prison anytime soon for this," Octoronia exclaimed, keeping Octon close to herself. Ocoto looked regretful for the matter, yet his partner in crime did not.

"I'll tie her up. Can one of you call the cops?" Maize requested. ECO nodded, pulling out her cellphone. He wondered if they had made their phones. They sure looked like they had been put together out of spare parts. The yellow inkling meanwhile began to tie up Occi, making sure she or her criminal associate could not escape. The arsonists looked aggravated.

"Huh?" Maize heard his cellphone ringing that familiar tone for the Squid Sisters. He finished tying Occi up before pulling out his cellphone.

"Y'ello?" he answered.

"Maize! Hey," Marie spoke up. He walked away from the four octolings. Now all they had to do was wait for the police.

"Hey, Marie. Did everything turn out alright?" Maize asked.

"Yes, it went great! We met your sister. She's certainly, err… interesting" Marie claimed. The yellow squid chuckled happily.

"Yeah… she likes to have any reason to get out and about," Maize claimed while taking a seat on one of the assembly lines, taking the first well needed break he had gotten in some time. Marie did sound slightly tired herself.

"Well, wherever you are, can you drop by soon? She's hanging out, but Callie and I feel really horrible for making someone sick come and save us," the famous squid explained. Maize quirked an eyebrow, wondering what she meant by sick. The last time he talked to his sister, she was not infected with any form of disease.

"I'll be right over," he agreed to head straight over, concerned. His mission was complete, and if he recalled right, the Squid Sisters did a total of six missions, even if most were simple. That was a nice amount to start with today.

"Thanks… oh! And Maize… does she always talk in rhyme?" Marie requested. The tone of her voice sounded like she was begging for a no. Fallow was nice, but the constant rhyming did get a little irritating, at least for Marie, but Callie and her child didn't seem to mind at all.

"Yes… sorry, it's her brain's adaptive coping mechanism. I'll see you soon," Maize said, before hanging up. Marie was confused when he meant adaptive mechanism for the brain. She did suspect mental issues from his sister, but didn't have a hint toward it until now. She and Callie were not going to press her to talk about her medical condition or mental wellbeing.

"They'll be here in five minutes" ECO stated while coming over to Maize, seeing him resting there.

"That's good. Sorry, for… y'know…" Maize apologized for what he did when accessing her emotional cortex. The robotic octoling put a hand to her chest.

"No one is permitted to touch my cortex. I feel like you touched a lot more than just my cortex... I still feel your hands on my heart," ECO claimed. Maize looked at her, unsure how to take that. He still was amazed that a robot could feel anything at all, but the mention of a heart made it all the more reminding that she was one of a kind. He was glad ECO and her sister trusted him enough to touch her emotional cortex.

"Well, your heart is beautiful," Maize complimented. The emotional cortex did look pretty to him. All of those lights were vibrant and flourishing the supply of life through the mechanical octoling. He felt her hug him. Apparently, saying that had brought nothing but joy to her.

"Uh… I gotta head to Inkopolis," Maize claimed, not breaking the embrace. He wrapped one of his arms around her.

"What about your splatterscope?" ECO quirked, aware that he had come here to get his weapon built before he got pulled into their mission. Octoronia was watching subtly from nearby. The two arsonists weren't going anywhere. She was glad the two interacted perfectly together.

"Have the cap'n bring it to me. I'd love to stay, but I have to go see what's going on with my sister," Maize explained. If his sister was sick, he was more worried about her than anything. Who cared about a weapon when he had to go make sure a member of his family was alright. She broke the hug, letting him get up.

"We'll make sure your splatterscope is built tough enough to survive anything!" ECO reassured. That was just what he wanted to hear, chuckling. He knew it would probably only take a day for them to get it done after they got this arsonist situation explained and sorted to the police.

"You two take care! And tell Humboldt I wish him the best," Maize bid his octoling friends farewell before he began to hurry out of the factory. Octoronia had a devious smirk, seeing her sister approaching. The blobbie was now starting to fall asleep within the inventor's arms.

"I've never seen you so embarrassed before. Do you think that sixth emotion is activating itself again?" Octoronia giggled, teasing her robotic sibling that made her chest light turn pink, feeling embarrassed.

"Sh-shut up! Or I won't help when your next invention blows up!" ECO retorted in threat. This sixth emotion had been kept hidden easily. It had been shut off a while back for certain conflicting reasons, and just bringing it up did nothing but immensely send her nerves overboard. She just wanted to move on now and wait for the police to apprehend the arsonists.

Maize was heading back to the way towards Octo Valley. He was glad to be of use. He had saved who knew how many of Mollusk Metropolis's population from the uncontrollable raging fires that could have broken out, and helped Humboldt's family out at the same time. It was a good day for him. It was around one in the afternoon, but he was more than glad to drop by the Squid Sisters' home to help formally introduce them to his sister. He hoped she was fine. She had enough problems, but being sick does not sound great at all. He tried to ignore any bad thoughts and focus on the positive. Maybe the siblings and the Squid Sisters could tackle a mission together. He would be proud to have his sister as an agent for the Special Squid Services. More members meant more squids being helped out.


	26. Dagenhart

Maize had made his way through Octo Valley, having took his helmet off and left it back with the pile of trinkets Captain Cuttlefish collected. He pulled his octoling goggles off his face and pocketed them before he put his glasses back on.

"Ohh, how it feels good to have you two free again," Maize smiled while rubbing his tentacles. They had not felt a good breath of air since he first entered Mollusk Metropolis. He could then see his captain and DJ Octavio still playing their board games, or at least the octopus was being forced to play, even if he could not reach one tentacle outside of that snow globe.

"'ey, squiddo, how'd your visit go?" Captain Cuttlefish greeted, Agent 3 gaining a salute in return. From what he could see, they were playing chess. DJ Octavio gave that angry glare. It was almost like he never blinked.

"It was everything but peaceful," Maize answered, wishing he could have had just one simple calm visit, but he was happy to have been able to help out in the end. He watched the elderly squid move his queen chess piece over.

"No matter how much ya hear it, the calm comes after the storm, not before it," Captain Cuttlefish stated. He was quite happy his grandsquids and Maize had all been doing great. Their website was flooded with requests, but he swore it was hard to sort out. When there weren't ones that were worth looking into, there would be others who would abuse the service or play pranks on the agents, or just waste their time on the simplest of things. Maize wished he could get something that simple.

"You got that right. I'm going to go visit Callie and Marie. You take care," Maize bid the captain farewell before he headed off, Captain Cuttlefish waving to him as he left, glad there was good youth out there able to help others. However, when he turned back to the chessboard, he had to fix his own spectacles, looking up at DJ Octavio in surprise.

"…how in the world did you get checkmate?"

The day seemed pretty nice in the Squid Sisters' apartment. Callie was trying to prepare a late lunch, enjoying the calm day so far, despite it beginning to get cloudy outside. Marie was in the living room with their current guest, Fallow, the older sister to Maize. She seemed unfazed when she realized that the two cousins were the famous Squid Sisters, which was more of a shocker to them.

"You're so sweet! I'm so glad I came to meet you all!" Fallow's rhyme happily rung out while she was sitting in the floor. Bondi was in her arms, and she was happily playing with the squishie. The white inkling was watching, though she couldn't help but focus on the light red inkling's oxygen mask and whatever those cords were running under her shirt. She seemed like she needed those desperately. The Squid Sisters did not want to rudely inquire about it.

"Squee!" Bondi laughed, having quickly grown attached to the new visitor. Callie was glad to have her as a guest so far. Hearing her son laughing really kindled some pride inside her.

"You giggled! You must love being tickled," Fallow hummed as the squishie kept giggling and laughing. They soon heard a knocking at the door, Marie getting up from her seat and letting their guest continue playing with the squishie. The white inkling was glad to then see their dear friend through the peephole. She opened the door.

"Hey, Marie," Maize smiled before stepping inside, letting the door close behind him. Fallow immediately stood up, handing Bondi over to Marie before she came over to Maize. The squishie appeared saddened to be out of his new friend's arms.

"Squee…" he sadly said.

"Bro! Where did you go?" Fallow wrapped her arms around her little brother tightly. Maize laughed, almost being picked up off the ground. He returned her warm embrace.

"I had a mission to take care of. Thanks for helping my friends, sis," Maize answered, seeing Callie coming from the kitchen. She was happy to see the siblings like this. It sure seemed different, yet Maize acted more mature than his sister, as far as the Squid Sisters could tell, which was odd, considering the age difference. The embrace came to an end.

"I was worried, they said you were sick," the yellow inkling exclaimed. Fallow shook her head.

"Sick? Nope. I got a little prick from my cactuses yesterday, but despite the pain, it did not seem like much to me anyway," Fallow continued her rhyme to her answer. She felt as good as usual. The Squid Sisters had to actually wonder if this was normal for how their family unit functioned.

"Fallow, how about you go set the table. We need to talk to your brother privately," Callie requested. Fallow agreed, going off to the kitchen to do as asked, aware she would find her way around the kitchen soon enough. Callie had made some potato soup for lunch. Marie returned the squishie to his mother.

"You girls really like to scare me, don't you?" Maize commented. The Squid Sisters really had only one way to respond to that.

"She really isn't sick?" Marie could not believe it essentially.

"Fallow looks rough, but she seems so… odd, too," Callie put it as nicely as she could put it while cradling her son in her arms. Maize quirked an eyebrow, but understood their confusion. At first glance his sister probably did not seem one bit healthy.

"She needs that oxygen mask a lot of the time, and those cords go into a machine on her chest. She can take them off for a couple of hours, but she otherwise needs them," Maize started trying to explain it to his dear friends, aware he could have probably told them a long time ago about his sister. It was not like he did not communicate with her often, but he did at least once a week, usually with text messages.

"You said her rhyming is a… adaptive coping mechanism for her brain?" Marie tried to repeat what he had told her.

"Yep. That's the thing. She's brain damaged, so her speech process is different than ours," Maize claimed. Those looks from the Squid Sisters were what he expected. He tapped a finger on his chest, thinking it was better to just tell them everything instead of answering line of questions like it was an interrogation.

"You see, Fallow got adopted when she was four. I came around a year later. When she was eleven, she had a bad habit of eating raw meat. Dad told her a million times to not eat it, but she did anyway, and she caught a parasite from it," Maize started telling them the story of what had happened to his sister to damage her. A parasite had gotten into her body and wreaked havoc, slowly ravaging and damaging Fallow's insides overtime.

"The doctors would not let us in her room. The parasites got in her brain and were eating away at it. When they gave her the medicine, the bugs began to die in her head and caused it to swell," Maize began to grow more and more upset. It was hard to recall the traumatic events that had hit his family when he was quite young. The Squid Sisters felt guiltier for forcing him to recall this.

"The doctors had tried to focus only on her brain, though. They never checked the rest of her body. So the bugs had begun to eat away at her heart and her lungs," Maize finished the retelling of his sister's traumatic past. He remembered his younger self could not go one day without thinking he was going to never see his sister again.

"Maize… I'm so sorry…" Callie extended her condolences. She felt horrible for prying into his family history. He shook his head.

"Two months later, my sister got out. She couldn't talk or walk, so they had to plant a machine in her chest to force her heart to pump and make her lungs breathe. Even so, she needs those to help," Maize finally finished the story of how Fallow came to be. The Squid Sisters were not sure how to respond, and not sure what they could say. It was safe to assume rehabilitation had restored her walking capabilities.

"So… the reason she rhymes is because it's all her brain can do for talking?" Marie asked.

"Exactly. It's not all bad, though. She rarely gets depressed, and she's still able to live on her own," he nodded, adding to this. There were some perks to what had happened to her, but the constant joy was about it, and brain damaged or not, she still was able to take care of herself without needing help from anyone or anything but her oxygen and the power supply for the device in her chest.

"I hope you're all ready for brunch! Lunch is ready," Fallow chimed, exiting from the kitchen, seeing the group all looking at her. She could sense her sibling's distress easily, but saw him force a smile on his face.

"Hey, Fallow! Did you tell them your motto?" Maize asked.

"Motto?" Callie chirped, looking at Bondi. He seemed alright, aware that she had to make him a bottle of formula to eat. Marie did like a good motto. They were always better than puns. Sadly she had to make a lot of puns with her cousin on the Inkopolis news. Fallow almost seemed ready to explode upon being requested.

"Oh! No matter what they say, or how rough they play, day or night, dark and bright, I'll let them know I'll never slow down! I may not be smart, but I'm proud to be a Dagenhart!" Fallow practically chanted her motto, the same way a proud military soldier would say it. Callie and Marie both smiled hearing that, but the last part did catch their attention.

"Dagenhart?" Marie quirked. This seemed to have Maize embarrassed.

"Dagenhart is our last name. I gladly accepted it, even though it holds no fame," Fallow claimed.

"So… your name is Maize Dagenhart?" Callie asked. Maize looked absolutely unsure how to feel with having his last name revealed. He did not hate it per say, and all of his friends who knew about it complimented it. But for some reason, Dagenhart felt like it had a creepier undertone to it than he liked. Besides that, he did not want anyone to go around referring to him as 'Mister Dagenhart'.

"Err, anyway, I'm starving! Let's go eat," Maize insisted they forego the last name of his and his sister's. The Squid Sisters thought they could tease him about it another time. Callie followed them into the kitchen, wanting to prepare a bottle for Bondi. Her cousin however had come up with a great idea.

"I have an idea. How about we all go out for a turf war after we eat?" Marie suggested. She imagined it in a second; the four of them made a full team, each with two chargers and two rollers.

"Huh… that sounds great!" Maize agreed happily. Fallow was up for it as well. They approached the kitchen table, Maize seeing the bowls and nicely set table. Each bowl was steaming warm, holding delicious appearing potato stew. He was ready to eat, and there was plenty to go around for everyone. Marie took a seat with her friends, Callie soon joining them while feeding Bondi. She loved the idea of fighting in a turf war. Bondi was chugging down a bottle of milk in his while resting in his mothers lap, while the others began to eat the potato stew. Each bite felt warm and filling, almost like it was forcing the consumer to rest more, but they all still were enjoying it immensely. Callie was a great cook, mostly because there were only a few restaurants in town she had not visited.

Maize looked around, seeing part of his family and his best friends all around one table. It filled him with determination to handle future missions. He hoped one day, maybe Special Squid Services could grow and gain a lot more agents than they had available. While the group continued to enjoy their lunch, he decided to ask his sister about becoming an agent later.


	27. Reminder

After they had finished eating their lunch, Maize had headed straight for the main plaza with Callie Marie and Fallow so they could all enjoy a turf war together. As they approached the battle tower, the disguised Squid Sisters went to Judd.

"Uh, Judd. We need a big favor" Callie stated. The cat could see what she was holding. It was that all too familiar squishie. The judge had a straight face.

"Why can't your old man watch him?" Judd asked looking at Bondi. The squishie seemed half asleep in his mother's arms. Callie looked at the friendly cat with those puppy eyes and quivering lip.

"Pleeaaase? …he said he was busy with some complex chess game," Callie begged. Maize snickered, aware that DJ Octavio was somehow dominating Captain Cuttlefish in chess. Judd couldn't stand that look from the black squid.

"Okay, fine," he sighed, holding out his paws. She turned Bondi over to the cat, the squishie instantly giggling from feeling the fur against his body.

"Thank you so much! We'll be back in a bit," Callie exclaimed as the group of four continued into the battle tower. She knew Judd could handle the squishie, or so she hoped. The cat looked down, seeing the baby squid staring back up at him.

"So uh… you like whistles?" Judd quirked. That was all he had on him that remotely resembled a toy. He had it tied around his neck on a string, usually blowing it to indicate the end of a turf war. The squishie grabbed it with his tentacles happily before blowing into it loudly. The loud whistle sent Bondi into a fit of laughter after.

"At least you're easy to entertain," he sighed in relief, just letting the squishie enjoy the whistle as much as he wanted.

Inside the battle tower, the group could see all forms of inklings already battling and brawling from ranked to regular. It made Maize question how the cat was able to monitor so many battles at once, but presumed he had some system in place. He saw Umber at one point, but the S+ ranked squid did not seem to notice him back.

"Hey, it seems they are waiting for a fight," Fallow chimed while pointing ahead. They could see a small group of four already on a platform waiting for opponents. Maize hated to know he would have to use his old squiffer for this turf war, but he had to make do with what he had since his new splatterscope was still being constructed.

"Alright, let's show'em what we got," Marie grinned. The other inklings appeared to be B+ rank at most. Maize had a thought pop into his head.

"What rank are you two?" Maize asked the Squid Sisters. Callie and Marie looked to each other at first. They seemed to have a straight answer, but when they thought about it, they had not the faintest ideas. He knew what that meant; they both were C-, the lowest rank of all. He decided not to inform them of this so they would not be upset. Fallow herself was A- ranked. The four stepped up onto the other platform. However, when the yellow squid got a better look at one inkling in the other group. His heart skipped a beat.

"Is that…" Maize thought to himself. He saw a girl inkling with orange tentacles tied into three ponytails. She had a pair of glasses on her face and was wearing a black and pink striped shirt. She did not take note of the yellow squid as the platforms were beginning to get covered in the glass casings. He kept staring, almost awestruck.

"Bro, why are you so… oh no," Fallow followed his eyes. The Squid Sisters couldn't understand what was going on. The platform and the chamber began to fill with purple ink for them, their opponents beginning to fill with orange.

"Maize! Hey, snap out of it!" Marie shook him slightly. He broke out of that horrified trance, looking to his friends. Fallow seemed to be the only one who knew what was going on, and this time, the usually overjoyed squid was afraid.

"Huh? …sorry, I was daydreaming," Maize lied horribly with his back turned. The glass chamber was about half full with their team's chosen ink color. It felt a lot slower than usual at the moment.

"If you're worried about us, don't be. We still sometimes sneak out to get in on the turf action!" Callie claimed, reassuring him that he did not have to worry about their personal skills on the battlefield. He went along with it, turning back to view the other group of squids. This time the orange inkling seemed to take notice of him. Her jaw dropped, and her body froze. Maize just kept staring, his face displaying no emotion as the chambers both became full, quickly draining away all the ink with all the squids within it to take them to the turf war location.

They all appeared within Blackbelly Skate Park. Callie and Marie wished they were anywhere but here right now. That mission they did to retrieve antique mustache combs was very stressful, but annoying. The whole team's tentacles had been doused with a purple tinge. Maize had his classic squiffer, Callie had a krak-on roller, while Fallow had her ink brush.

"Let's go!" Callie cheered, already rolling out her roller on the ground, leaving a long, winding trail of purple ink behind her. Fallow cast a worried gaze to her younger brother before heading off toward another direction. Marie sighed, running off to find some high ground. Maize headed to the right path where there were mostly ramps that were quite high and steep.

"Fulvous…" his head repeated mentally as he was covering as much area as he could with his team's purple ink. He was tossing ink grenades and blasting with his squiffer. That was the problem with chargers; they could not cover much ground, but in trade, packed a huge punch. He jumped down from a ramp into a half pipe, seeing a lot of it covered with orange ink. He saw some of the enemy ink bubbling.

"Yeah, I figured they'd hide here…" Maize groaned, immediately ducking. He saw one of the enemy squids pop up from the orange ink with a mini splatling gun, a rapid firing minigun, ready and charged. The enemy opened fire, and the barrels spun, releasing thousands of splotches of bright orange ink, yet most of it missed Maize and covered the area behind him. He was glad he reacted in time.

"Nice try, nematode!" Maize taunted before he held the trigger, his squiffer charging. He aimed and released, watching it fire a burst of purple ink and hit the enemy squid in the head, splattering him instantly. He was thankful his charger charged a lot faster than the splatling gun. With that dealt with, he began to continue his colorful work.

Callie found herself in an odd area. This part of Blackbelly Skate Park felt unfinished, but at the same time perfect for skateboards. It was unintentionally perfect construction. Now if only she could ride one, she thought. She heard something turning her head slightly, seeing an enemy inkling behind her with a roller raised high.

"Eep!" Callie quickly changed into her squid form before she sunk into the purple ink, swimming aside. The roller crashed onto the ground, covering it in orange ink. She had noticed now that she was, all of a sudden, surrounded by orange ink.

"Time to splat ya," the enemy grinned, having their ink tank half full. Callie was in the same position. She gripped her krak-on roller tighter. She had to stand and fight. She did not have its special ability ready, though she had an idea.

"You aren't fresh enough to splat me!" the Squid Sister taunted. That seemed to agitate him. The enemy inkling swung his roller, attempting to crush her. Callie countered, bashing hers into his, knocking his roller upward and sending orange and purple ink into the air. Some splattered onto her back, and it stung and burnt, but the enemy was in a similar position.

"You little-!" he growled, swinging sideways. Callie bashed it back. Their ink was going everywhere, both rollers continued clashing and bashing like durable swords, sending purple and orange ink all around them and onto them. The enemy squid swung one more time. Callie spun around, crashing her krak-on roller into his and knocking him sideways. He had run out of ink and could not react before she jumped up and crushed him into the ground, splattering him instantly.

"Staaay fresh!" Callie hummed before she returned to covering the enemy turf.

Marie had gotten a high point near some grind rails that seemed almost like a guaranteed set up for some poor squid to break their legs attempting to do tricks. She looked down to the lower area. She saw Fallow who ran along, swinging her ink brush covering as much as she could, before a suction grenade landed in front of her.

"Oh dear," Fallow spoke in shock, "I fear I'm going to-"

The grenade exploded, splattering her into a puddle of orange ink. Marie saw an enemy squid on an upper platform who had not noticed her yet, and she began charging her weapon.

"At least she has a good spirit," Marie muttered, appreciative for Fallow's morale boosting efforts. She aimed and let go of the trigger, firing a blast of purple ink. It hit the enemy squid from up high and knocked them off the platform, splattering them instantly. Marie planned on staying to hold this area, hoping everyone else was doing fine.

Maize was nearing the other side of the skate park, walking along and keeping a view on his surroundings. He was creeping up alongside a wall, looking past the corner.

"I haven't seen any of the squids in a while…" he spoke to himself. He had not seen either of the Squid Sisters or his sister since they split up at the start of the turf war. He doubted it was anything to worry about, but he had not encountered any enemies for a while and had been given the chance to freely cover the turf. But, there was a small trail of orange ink behind him, and something was moving in it. He heard the sound of someone changing from squid to their inkling form. Maize quickly turned, aiming his charger, seeing that same orange inkling that did nothing but make him feel horrible when he saw her.

"Maize… it's you," the orange stated, upset. Maize felt tense, knowing this was not going to be a happy reunion. He took in a breath, trying to calm down. He let go of his charger, aiming it at the ground and letting it shoot harmlessly onto the turf below them.

"Yeah. It's me, Fulvous," he nodded, insisting that it was no delusion. He did not get to say anything more as he was slapped hard across the face, leaving a bruise on his cheek. He did not get angry at this, but kept his straight face.

"How dare you stick your face into these turf wars again?! You should have been locked away for life, yet you're still the same sick angler you were!" Fulvous exclaimed. Her fury seemed to know no bounds. Being called an angler was quite the big insult. It ranged from a wide variety of meanings, but the one common to most inklings was a trickster, a person who was not what they seemed without true change.

"I've changed, Fulvous. I lost a year in that place," another hard slap hit the yellow squid's face. It appeared both turf war teams were going to be in a 3v3 match from there.

"You've changed? …such empty words! You lost the ban you received from the officials, and somehow they took mercy on you for your crimes! All because of some old squid vouching for you, and your act!" Fulvous stomped. Maize rested his squiffer down. He rummaged around his pocket before pulling out his wallet. He reached inside one of the card holders and presented a photo.

"This must hurt to see, right? Almost as much as it hurts to see me? What happened only happened, because I made a promise to him, that I had to keep," Maize claimed. The photo depicted a light blue inkling who looked to be only fifteen years old. His hair was tied and wrapped together, and he was wearing a small cap on his head. The picture had writing at the bottom that read 'Cyan'. That picture struck a strong nerve. He got a hard punch to the stomach that sent him back. He groaned in pain, just sliding down against the wall. Maize was still not fighting back. He looked up at Fulvous, who had tears welling in her eyes.

"You… murderer!"


	28. Uncontrollable Rage

Maize bit his lip. He was standing before the inkling who was accusing him of murder. He relaxed, doing his best to keep calm. Fulvous looked on the verge of tears, and each sentence she spouted deeply wounded him.

"I can say I'm sorry a hundred times, but I know it won't change anything," the yellow squid said, expecting another hard slap or punch from her, but did not receive that. The photo of the blue inkling was still in his hand.

"It's not fair… you did all this, and you didn't suffer retribution. I had to deal with this all my life!" Fulvous sobbed, pushing him into the wall. They were hiding behind a small area, the turf war still going on, but it was going to end soon. They both had already carelessly left their teams to a 3v3.

"I know you did… I suffered a lot for it, too, but the cap'n changed my life," Maize stated, referring to Captain Cuttlefish. The old squid had saved him and had done so much to change his life. Fighting the octarians was just one chapter of what Maize had considered a new beginning.

"You got luxury! …why did you get luxury? I can't go one day without imagining your hands around his throat… you bloodsucking monster!" Fulvous exclaimed, beginning to sob hard. At this point, the yellow inkling was sick of being held against the wall. He grabbed her left wrist and her right forearm, turning things around easily and pinning her to the wall.

"I don't care if you don't believe me. I don't care what you saw. You had your chance years ago in court, and it was already enough," Maize reminded her. The two of them felt the same atmosphere of hatred, but the yellow squid did not appear to show any aggression back toward her rage. He seemed more intent, on calmly handling the situation, rather than escalating it.

"And before you say you'll kill me, I'll have you know, I've gotten more combat experience than ever," Maize added. He did not want to hear the same thing over and over. The orange inkling spat in his face. He thought he had that coming. He seemed like he was trying to just scare her off, but he did not notice her stomp on his foot until it was too late. He yelped in pain before she tackled him to the ground. They both wound up splashing in a mix of purple and orange ink, his glasses getting messed up.

"Get off me! I'm not going to hurt you!" Maize growled, trying to wrestle the other squid off him, feeling the purple and orange ink splattering onto him. He got punched in the side, but he refused to punch her back. He tried hard to get her off, but she got on top of him and kept him pinned down.

"I don't care if you can't hit a girl! You will pay!" Fulvous opened her mouth wide. Her three sharp teeth shined, before she sank them into the first thing she could bite.

"Grahhh!" Maize screamed in pain. The orange squid's bite kept getting deeper. His entire body was hurting. He grabbed her jaw and head, his eyes that expressed nothing but worry gazing back into hers that showed a blazing flame of rage.

"I won't hit you… because I promised Cyan I wouldn't!" he exclaimed, feeling another sharp wave of pain course through his body, but it felt like it was coming from his head. Fulvous heard this and began to release her bite. Things seemed to relax a tiny bit. He was panting, lying flat on his back with her on top of him.

"What are you talking about?" Fulvous quirked. She had blood running from her mouth. Maize could feel a constant throbbing pain from his head.

"Get off Maize! Or I'll bash you into a daze!" they both heard a rhyme ring out. From one direction, they saw Fallow. Maize did not say anything looking up to the orange inkling.

"Please give up. I'm sorry," Maize told her. The orange inkling instantly got bashed off by an ink brush, being splattered into a purple blast. The yellow squid was happy to see his sister. Fallow was panting as she reached into her bag and increased her oxygen, taking in a deep breath and trying to calm down.

"Bro, don't go and scare me like that…" Fallow hugged him. Maize sighed, glad to have some form of comfort for once. When their embrace broke however, she gasped in horror.

"Ahhhhhhh!" she shrieked in terror, confusing him. At least she could scream without having to rhyme. She pulled out a small hand mirror from her pocket which she normally used to fix her makeup. Her brother's eyes went wide upon seeing what had happened. He had a cold chill run down his back. He had a wet feeling on his shoulder. It was his own blood. He grabbed the bandanna around his sister's head and took it off, beginning to tie it onto his own head.

"Please, Fallow, I need you to be calm…" Maize pleaded, seeing how upset she was. She was aware of this mess of a history, that it was engraved forever into the Dagenhart family tree.

"This can't be happening! I was hoping things were wrapping up forever after the trials…" Fallow sobbed. Her brother was hurt. What he lost was the same as a poor squid losing their entire limb. They heard a loud whistle, indicating that the turf war was over.

"Fallow, look. You can't tell Callie or Marie what happened. This isn't a mission. You don't need to worry about it," Maize explained, aware that if the Squid Sisters got involved, they would press this and would not rest until they knew the truth. Even if it was out of good intention or not, he did not want to upset them.

"No! You're hurt! We can no longer invert the past," Fallow counter argued. This was exactly why the Special Squid Services was founded; to help every squid in trouble that needed help, and to discover the truth.

"Fallow, you're the best sister anyone can ask for. I think you'd be a perfect agent for the Special Squid Services. But I need to lay low," Maize explained. Fallow's lip quivered as she wondered how he was handling this situation so well. They were both beginning to head back to the starting point, that bandanna on the yellow squid's head wrapped tight and hiding everything on it.

"Me? An agent? That's absolutely reagent!" Fallow agreed to becoming an agent, aware that her little brother probably only sprung this up because of the current stress of the situation. The past was making itself blunt once more.

"Good! You can be Agent 6 of the Special Squid Services… unofficially of course" Maize told her. This comment confused her, as she knew her brother was Agent 3, and Callie and Marie were Agents 1 and 2.

"Agent 6? Talk about the Styx! Why can't I dive, right into four or five?" Fallow questioned. Maize was glad that she was very easy to make happy. She knew the situation was horrible, but he always told her that panicking never could help in a situation, and at this point, the yellow inkling was not wanting to rely on his luck, but this was a situation where he had no choice but to hope his luck could go well for him. However, Fulvous had wounded him horribly.

"There's two agents with those numbers already," he stated as they began to approach the starting platform. Fallow sighed, agreeing to taking up the tagline Agent 6. She could be a good squid to show that being damaged did not mean the end of the world for any inkling, though right now, Maize wished he could have some of that positivity.

"There you two are! Where've you been?" Callie greeted their two friends. All four of them were now on the starting platform

"We've been waiting for a while," Marie added, agreeing with her cousin. The two were in one of their better syncing moments, though the white squid was more curious why their friend was wearing his sister's bandanna. He was hiding the blood on his shirt, too.

"N-nothing. Meet Agent 6; the newest member of the Special Squid Services," Maize gestured a hand motion to Fallow. She clapped her hands in joy.

"Six? Why not Agent 4?" Marie chirped the same question on everyone's minds.

"Or five?" Callie added. Maize rubbed his eyes.

"Not right now, please," the yellow squid retorted while fixing his glasses. The Squid Sisters gave a look to one another out of worry before the platform sucked all four of them within it, beginning to return them back to the battle tower.

When both groups appeared on separate platforms in the battle platform, they could hear erratic whistling volume. It was a lot different than what the judge normally would use with his whistle.

"Alright, little guy, you did good," Judd hummed while coming out. Bondi was still happily playing with the cat's whistle. Before the anthropomorphic cat could state who won the turf war, Maize had already started to run away, out of the battle tower, shocking any passing inkling and his best friends.

"Hey, wait! You didn't hear if we won or not…" Callie called out. Fallow kept quiet, just trying to keep a smile on her face, forcing her own mind to find the positives in this situation. So far she was finding none, but she had no intention to stop trying to find the better side of this horrid accident.

"He probably just ate too much," Marie reassured it was nothing they had to worry about, though that was what she wanted to believe. Her nerves were bugging her, telling her that she was wrong with her initial thoughts. She hated it when her nerves did not let up. Usually it meant something bad was going on. Callie took her son back happily from Judd.

"Squee!" the squishie giggled, happy to see his mother again.

"Okay… purple team, you covered 53%. Orange team, you covered 47%. The winner is… Team Purple!" Judd raised a bright flag of the team color.

"Yes!" Callie cheered, hugging Bondi tight. Marie giggled while patting Fallow's back.

"You're pretty mean with that ink brush. Good work!" the white inkling claimed. Fallow nodded, looking at the door her brother had run out. Her brain was beginning to complain that she needed to inform the Squid Sisters of everything that had happened, but she bit her tongue to restrain herself from rhyming the truth.

"Come on, let's go do a mission for our new team member!" Callie suggested they all go on a mission. Bondi seemed very excited to go on a mission since she had no one available to watch the squishie. She was going to make sure this mission would not be dangerous either.

Maize ran for quite some time. He made his way back to his home. Clouds were filling the sky and making it darker, and it would soon be raining. He opened the screen door and unlocked his regular door, snatching the spare key from outside before stepping inside, locking everything behind him.

"No, no, no… she couldn't have…" Maize was muttering to himself, the bandanna falling onto the floor of the living from, being covered in blood. He began to stumble into his bedroom, looking into the mirror. He couldn't believe it anymore. He almost collapsed upon seeing the sight again.

"…she did. She bit it off!" Maize screamed. Fulvous's strong bite had left its impression. In the mirror, the yellow squid's head was bleeding for one reason. One of his tentacles had been entirely bitten off during that struggle, his right one specifically. He was terrified to the core. He had no idea where the missing limb went, either. Maize didn't know what to do. He went over to grab some cleaning materials. The past was rearing its face once more, and he was scared out of his wits' end. This was the gravest injury he had ever received, and it was going to leave a nasty scar on what now was the stump of a tentacle.


	29. Contradiction

**Authors Note: Hi all! I got you all a special longer chapter today. Enjoy!**

Maize was in his bathroom, which seemed like the best place to try and clean the stump of his now severed tentacle. He never expected to lose either of his tentacles, especially by a vicious bite. Inkling teeth were quite sharp. The only type of teeth sharper in existence was probably a shark's teeth, and he never had met a nasty shark before. They all seemed pretty nice, from what he remembered.

"Grah…" Maize groaned. There was some blood on the tiled floor, but nothing that could not be mopped up easily. He planned on just burning his blood soaked shirt that was resting in the sink, doubting he could clean that up or pass it off as red ink. He was rubbing the wound with hydrogen peroxide. Each touch stung like crazy and made his whole head hurt. There was also a sewing kit resting beside him. He never imagined they would get used like this. The yellow squid's mother taught him how to sew so his favorite clothing would never be ruined.

Maize heard a knocking from his living room. He initially ignored it, trying to continue cleaning his wound before he heard another set of knocks.

"Maize! …hello? Got-a delivery here for ya," Captain Cuttlefish called out. Maize sighed, knowing that this was about his splatterscope. He was surprised by how fast the octoling agents were able to build the weapon. He got up, going to the door. At times like this, he wished he lived in an apartment instead of a house, just so he could have a peephole. Instead, all he had was a very thick door to protect against burglars.

"Hey, cap'n! Just leave it out there and I'll get it in a bit!" Maize called out, hoping for his captain to leave.

"Squiddo, I don't plan on leaving a weapon unattended out here to be taken," the elder inkling declared. Agent 3 sighed, wondering what to do. Maybe he could put on a hat and just fake his way through it, but then he would just get blood on another piece of clothing, and he was frankly getting sick of the ever increasing mess.

"I can pick the lock if you want," a familiar voice rung out.

"Octoronia?" he muttered, surprised.

"Here, let me do it," ECO chimed up. Apparently both of the octolings came. They had no fear of being seen in Inkopolis or any hesitation. He wondered why they had not just gave the package to the captain like he requested. Suddenly Maize saw his doorknob fall off and clatter onto the floor. The robotic octoling was able to dismantle that quite fast. The yellow squid groaned in irritation, taking a step back and letting the door open slowly. The two octopus sisters were standing alongside the old inkling, wearing helmets to hide their tentacles. They all had the same reaction to seeing him.

"Come on in…" Maize welcomed them half-heartedly. Captain Cuttlefish was the first to get his composure back on the situation. He had a pretty good feeling about what happened.

"Can't escape the past… can ya, squiddo?" the captain coughed. Agent 3 knew that as no joke. The elder was the only one who knew about this history thoroughly, mostly because he especially had a hand in saving the yellow inkling from having his entire life ruined.

"W-we wanted to deliver your splatterscope personally… oh, Cthulu!" ECO stammered. The blood was overwhelming for her, the light on her chest flashing between yellow and blue erratically like she had lost control of her emotions. That emotional cortex of hers was as advanced as her sister made it.

"It's not even been a day, and already you've somehow gotten a botched amputation?!" Octoronia exclaimed, the newly assembled splatterscope resting on her back. He stepped aside, letting the three of them enter his home. She laid it by the doorway.

"I didn't let it happen on purpose. I just got chomped by another squid," Maize retorted. That did nothing but add onto their already stunned mindsets. To hear that it was bit off sounded agonizing.

"Where's your first aid kit?" ECO requested. He pointed toward the bathroom.

"In the bathroom. Everything is laid out in there," Maize claimed, letting the robotic octoling go off to grab the supplies. He knew those two were going to do their best to treat the injury. He plopped down onto his couch, Octoronia taking off her helmet and resting it on the coffee table.

"Can you two let us in on what's happening?" Octoronia requested, wishing to not be kept in the dark about this. Captain Cuttlefish however was on his cellphone and sending out a text.

"I can't," Maize simply said, not wanting to sound mean to his friends and fellow agents, but he did not want anyone else involved if he could help it.

"You'll learn in due time, but first we need my grandsquids to come," Captain Cuttlefish stated. He had texted the Squid Sisters to come straight over. That seemed to strike a nerve with the male inkling.

"What?! No way! Now look here, I don't want anyone involved with this! Everything is in the past now, and it is not going to get anywhere remotely near me!" Maize furiously stomped. Octoronia watched another bit of blood come from his wound. She always had a phobia of getting her blood drawn, but this was ridiculous. ECO returned, carrying all the medical supplies she needed. Maize got bashed over the head by the elder's cane.

"Squiddo, if it weren't for me, you'd still be in jail, and be banned from turf wars," Captain Cuttlefish reminded him. Maize, all in all, was in debt to the elder. The boy grit his teeth before another stinging pain rung out from ECO trying to clean his wound.

"Ack! At least warn me before you do that!" he requested in surprise, being forced to sit back down. His tentacles were really sensitive. Pain was never good for any of the inklings' tentacles. Having only one now also meant that whenever he turned into his squid form, it would be a struggle to move.

"I saw no need in warning you," ECO said. Once she finished with that, she simply began trying to get the sewing needle prepared, trying to thread the string through it. But the robot's hands were unsteady from nervousness, so this was going to take some time and going to hurt a lot. Maize had to accept the fact that all of the agents would soon be in his house and the past would be made public. His troubles he caused would rear their ugly head once again, and his mind was elsewhere.

It was another mission for Callie, Marie and Fallow, and a simple one of course. They were stuck, looking around some old squid's neighborhood in an attempt to find his pet, but he had not told them what this pet was. But it had been missing for over a few days.

"Callie… you look ridiculous," Marie said to her cousin. She was wearing a harness on the front of her chest, carrying Bondi in it. She had seen it on a mannequin through a store window, and she just simply had to buy it. Her squishie was asleep, having decided it was naptime for him. She was very thankful her son was not hard to get to sleep. He was a very content squid.

"Aw, c'mon Marie! You know I'm pulling it off with this outfit," Callie argued. Fallow still saw no sign of any form of animal at all, though when they passed by one of the many lawns, there were a couple of trees in there. She saw some of the leaves rustle, and there was too much movement for it to be from a bird either.

"I'm starting to be bet, up there is the pet," Fallow rhymed in her usual happy matter, though the two cousins were looking close to having a disagreement.

"Are you worried I'm going to gain fan preference just for being a mom?" Callie quirked. The squishie had appeared on television due to that one cameraman not knowing the meaning of cut to commercial.

"The adult audience won't care anymore about us than before, just because you have a squishie…" Marie sighed in frustration, rubbing her head sorely. That cameraman got a severe pay cut for showing Bondi on live television. However she could not deny that she was happy they have Bondi. It felt more fulfilling than she expected, even if she was just the aunt, helping take care of him.

"Here, I'll go see, but don't you dare, leave me alone if the pet's up there" Fallow stated in her rhymes. The Squid Sisters only seemed to half hear her. Fallow sighed, going over to the tree. She made sure her oxygen mask was hooked up well before she grabbed onto the side of the tree and began to pull herself up, getting higher up. Agent 6 never noticed it until now, but being so high off the ground, even if it was only a foot high, was making her afraid.

"Oh! A text from grandpa," Callie hummed, having pulled out her cellphone upon hearing it chime an alert tone. Marie smiled, glad to know that once again their grandsquid had somehow contacted them at the perfect time to interrupt another fight. He had done this quite a lot before. It was almost like he knew whenever they were close to arguing.

"What's it say?" Marie requested her to read it. Neither of them were paying attention to Fallow nor her fear of heights that even she had no idea about. The black squid presented her phone to her cousin.

"Need to meet up at Maize's house. It's very important," Callie read. It sounded like an emergency family meeting. Callie hated to go dragging Bondi everywhere, but with no one to watch over him, she really had no choice. He so far did not seem to have any problems with exploring new environments. That was if he was awake at the moment.

"Hey, Fallow! We have to postpone the mission for a little while," Marie tried to call out before they heard a sudden startled squeal, and saw Maize's sister fall out of the tree and flat onto her back, holding something in her arms. The Squid Sisters approached, intending to help her up, though they both froze when seeing what she had on her chest.

"Here he is…He was a tier above the first branches!" Fallow coughed another rhyme, happy to have found the pet.

"That's a raccoon!" Marie said in surprise. It was just a simple ring tailed raccoon with a red collar around its neck that read 'Rummage'. The pet sure looked pretty calm for just being jerked out of a tree with a rough fall.

"Aw. It looks hungry," Callie commented, wishing she had a treat of some kind to give it. To her, the pet looked adorable. Fallow groaned, getting back up and picking the raccoon up. She was not wrong that it looked starving, but that was because it had been missing for three days.

"We need to go to your brother's, so let's drop the… pet… back to its owner before we go…" Marie hesitantly explained, still unable to understand how the raccoon was even considered a pet. Fallow looked upset, being reminded of her brother. She was aware of what had happened to him, hoping that maybe he would tell the truth to them. The three squid girls began to make their way off to return the pet.

Things had somewhat gotten less tense in Maize's home at the moment. ECO was carefully suturing his wound. He was thankful that she had some medical knowledge, though while she was sewing what was left of his tentacle up, he had a thought.

"Hey, Octoronia? You never told me what that invention was… you know, the one you needed for the contest? Did you win?" Maize wondered. The inventor octoling was trying to clean up for him, not wanting to tolerate the blood around her any longer. Meanwhile, Captain Cuttlefish had fallen asleep in the other chair.

"Oh, err… yes, and no," the inventor stated. Maize helped her rescue ECO, because she exclaimed how only the robot would know how to rebuild the important machine needed for the competition to be funded and researched further.

"What do you mean?" he insisted.

"You see, Maize, I have a unique doubling power source. During the day I'm charged with solar power," ECO started. Her older sister had a grin, remembering assembling this important invention when creating her. Recreating it for the competition was a bigger pain than she expected.

"She's also the only machine in existence that can be powered by moonlight! I made a new complex reflective material to enhance all incoming light sources, though as a backup, she still has two emergency batteries storing power in case the power converters get damaged," Octoronia tried to explain it in the simplest way possible. Maize presumed that the lunar and solar panels were why ECO's metallic tentacles were so shiny. They made any light source viable for recharging without worry.

"Wow! You must have gotten first, right?" Maize grinned, glad to have been able to help. However, both of the octarians looked embarrassed, now having to explain why they didn't actually win.

"You see, I tried to simply hook up six car batteries to a big lunar panel. The problem was the competition was at 1pm," Octoronia explained, looking completely embarrassed admitting it.

"So we got disqualified for inventing something that already existed," ECO finished for her ashamed sibling. The lunar panels charging in the day were nothing more special than solar panels, and the judges of that competition did not tolerate or give lengthy time tolerance. Maize wanted to facepalm from hearing this.

"So what did win the competition?" the yellow squid wanted to know.

"A… a yogurt dispenser won…" Octoronia muttered, feeling angered and looking ready to punch a hole in the wall.

"That only dispensed trout flavored yogurt…" ECO added sadly. Octarians all had the same love for consuming trout. The judges were wooed by it and the investors saw it as a cheap and easy way to earn money, perhaps millions of it, or even billions. Maize only had a twitch in his eye. After all that, they wound up losing the contest anyway.

"There's always next time…" he tried to be positive about this, but he could understand easily why the two of them were not happy at all about this, but they had a lot of plans prepared for the next competition. ECO finally finished stitching closed his wound. She made sure the stitches were fine before she bit off the string, detaching the needle.

"That should hold, but you lost a good ounce of blood, so try and take it easy," ECO requested. The light on her chest was blue, displaying concern. Maize thought he saw a flash of a different light for a second, but he ignored it, thinking he was just not paying attention and now he felt just rude for staring at the robots chest so much.

"I'll try, but I don't think I'll be getting much rest, though," Maize admitted, aware that the rest of the agents were going to be here soon. It had been at least an hour since Captain Cuttlefish texted the Squid Sisters, and he knew that the truth was going to be spoken if he wanted to get beyond his past. But as long as Fulvous held a bloodthirsty grudge toward him, he doubted he would ever be able to move on. However there were two more squids involved with this who were long since gone from the yellow squid's life.

"Wuh?!" Captain Cuttlefish suddenly woke up, hearing the sounds of knocking at the door. The door opened on its own from the light tapping. The knob being off it completely made it unable to keep itself closed. Maize made a mental note to get the octolings to fix that.

"Uh, I think your doors broke… what the?" Callie gasped, seeing Maize and Captain Cuttlefish near those two octolings. Both she and her cousin were sent into defensive mode, Marie pulling out a lunar blaster she had stashed away in her bag for emergencies. Fallow was awkwardly in the back, not sure what to do. ECO and Octoronia were caught off guard by this, and Captain Cuttlefish was still too groggy to get out of his seat. Maize stood up and got between the two groups.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Girls, calm down! …Callie, Marie, Fallow… ahem, meet Agents 4 and 5, Octoronia and ECO," Maize introduced them after he got in the way of Marie's small weapon. What choice did he have to stop the octolings from being slathered? Now that all the agents for the Special Squid Services were in the same room, he realized that he was the only boy out of them all, since Captain Cuttlefish was just the founder of the operation and not a real agent.

"…I swear, every time you're not in our sight you do something crazy," Marie rubbed her eyes, Callie approaching their dear friend to see the stitched up wound of his. She could only cover her mouth, trying to process the sight. His sister came over and hugged her brother.

"We came in peace. We're the agents for Mollusk Metropolis," Octoronia stated, aware that octolings did not have a good reputation with inklings at all due to the history they had, but since DJ Octavio got taken out of the picture, octarians had not made any aggressive attempts at the squids. They had in some way gone into hiding just for their personal peace.

"What happened, Maize?" Callie upsettingly asked, emotionally struck deep in her heart from seeing the damage on him. Bondi was still sleeping peacefully in the harness. Marie could not deny that this was an unsettling sight for them both. The yellow squid assumed that he would be gaining these types of looks for a while. The only other squid he ever saw in his life with one tentacle was that insane club owner, Rose, from his very first mission under the Special Squid Services.

"My tentacle was bitten off during that turf war we were at. By the angry sibling of someone I murdered," Maize simply stated. Complete silence filled the air. Captain Cuttlefish seemed to just wait to let Agent 3 handle the talking as all ears and eyes were on him now.

"Please… tell us this is a joke. Like that time me and Callie pretended to be cannibals last April…" Marie requested.

"Nope. It's not a joke," the blonde squid shook his head, though he could not help but grin from recalling that April fool's prank the Squid Sisters played that had all of Inkopolis in an uproar for the day. They had pretended to go crazy, and eat a cameraman on live television. That was a pretty good prank to say the least.

"Around when I was fifteen I had gotten cut off from all my friends. Aero was off training to be prepared to become CEO, and all me and Fallow had was our dad. The squid I killed was named Cyan," Maize started the tale.

"You see, during a turf war, he hurt my sister. He damaged that machine that keeps her heart pumping," the yellow squid added. Fallow could not help but feel some guilt for that. This Cyan squid was quite the aggressive roller and did not hesitate to crush anyone in his way instead of simply splattering them by throwing ink.

"I wound up with another operation once they found out what was wrong," Fallow stated for him, aware this was hard for him to talk about, but he was doing it because everyone here other than Fallow was so close to him that he considered them a family already.

"I went and hunted him down. I sabotaged his roller so early on in the next turf war. He entered at Saltspray Rig with his sister when it stopped spraying ink. So when he was alone, I hit him as hard as I could and then I kept him on the ground and stayed on top of his chest with my hands around his throat… until he stopped moving," Maize continued the tale of Cyan's murder. The reason the turf war officials got involved with his trial and got him banned from turf wars was because of that sabotage he did on the roller. The murder to them was the second most important thing which was quite horrible in retrospective, but that was how the turf war officials operated. They cared only about the turf wars and nothing more.

"I got a forty year sentence of course in jail, so the officials gave a six month ban since they didn't think I'd be getting out anyway," Maize looked over to the captain. Everyone but his own sister and the elder squid became more afraid the more they heard.

"Then the cap'n here showed up, thinking that something was off with the evidence. Sure enough, my luck was with me and he was right. The next thing I know he's vouching for me and wanting to reform me. In trade, I had to become his personal helper whenever he needed me. Time passed and the ban got lifted in half the time, thanks to the cap'n pleading I had learnt from my mistake," Maize explained the captain's role in this rehabilitation and how he got out of prison a lot sooner than he should have.

Callie and Marie looked at their grandsquid, seeing him keeping that same straight face and showing little emotion. They never had seen Maize before the great zapfish went missing, and yet he had been around their grandsquid for a number of years. It really made the Squid Sisters wonder why they kept this such a big secret. Admitting to murder was not something one would actively want to bring up in a casual conversation, but Maize had so many chances to tell them about his past, but the only times they heard anything was whenever that past forced itself around, like when the two first met Tentatek's CEO, or when his sister appeared to help the two on a mission.

"Over the years I wound up marrying Aero and becoming Agent 3 officially when the great zapfish went missing," Maize finished his lengthy explanation. His sister appeared to have something to add that he forgot.

"Fulvous was quite ferocious! She saw it all and became the one and only witness to bring his downfall," Fallow added. Fulvous's testimony had made the trial completely one sided. It was horrifying to remember how each courtroom gathering felt like. It lasted forever, only to be delayed to further the investigations for both sides to try and settle the trial once and for all. ECO's chest light was very brightly yellow in surprise. It seemed to just keep getting brighter the longer they listened.

"Of course, it's no mystery that when she found out I got out, she went nuts. I guess all those years of anger built up made her go crazy," Maize claimed, aware that Fulvous was going to want more than just his tentacle. Next time she saw him, he will probably have every limb he had left torn off.

"Just… why… why not tell us?! I thought you trusted us…" Callie sobbed. Imagining him as a murderer struck deeper. Even if it was not for the gruesome detail and the captain's silence, it seemed like it was all true. Fallow's addition to the story was also there adding to the proof.

"Is that why you're so determined to help others? Is this some kind of retribution junk?" Marie asked half-heartedly. Maize had done a lot of nice things for their lives and they had a lot of fun and great memories, but if she had trusted a murderer with where they lived, she felt like she had made nothing but huge mistakes. But when she thought about it for a second, she was now asking herself why she felt nothing from his admittance to murder. That immediate surprise and irritation was gone, her nerves beginning to make her tentacles start tingling. She never had this happen before. She was having a lot of doubts about their best friend being a murderer.

"I… I just don't have anything to say," Octoronia said. He was one of the nicest murderers she ever met and she mentally hoped that he would be the only one. She looked to her robotic sibling for her opinion on it. The robotic octoling seemed to be deep in thought. Her eyes snapped open as her chest light turned purple. That was a light Maize never saw before. The inventor octopus looked nervous seeing it.

"I don't believe it. You do not house the regret of a killer. You make these promises because they're what you believe will help change lives. You never intend to ruin even one," ECO exclaimed what she believed everyone in the room had to keep reminding themselves. She was a robot, it was how organic her personality and actions were that kept making them forget that.

"Sorry, ECO, but it's true. I don't know whether Marie's right about the whole making up for my mistakes deal, but still it doesn't change that I know I did it," Maize retorted. They suddenly heard a loud tapping on the floor, Captain Cuttlefish banging his cane on the ground.

"Alright, squiddos. Enough drama. It's time for the truth, Maize. You told me one thing you did not tell them," Captain Cuttlefish declared. He bit his lip, hesitating.

"I… don't know when, but I promised Cyan I would take care of his sister. But it feels like it was after he was dead," Maize added. He had no idea when he did it, though he never got along with Cyan. He had the motive and everything. It all made sense in his head, but whenever he thought back to years ago, all Maize could draw was vague memories of him with his hands on Cyan's throat. He suddenly got hit in the head by another bash of the cane. Captain Cuttlefish was not happy with him. He only hit others with that cane whenever he was immensely displeased with them.

"Squiddo, I vouched for you not because I needed help, but because I knew you were innocent. I got one of those reports from your old defense lawyer to help get you out of jail, and you know why? Because the evidence did not add up," Captain Cuttlefish took off his hat, rummaging around inside of it. There were a lot of items stashed away in his hat. He pulled out a small folder before turning it over, Callie taking it and looking it over.

"…the fingerprints on Cyan's neck were upside down? And his chest was not hurt at all?" Callie read it aloud. That made no sense. Maize claimed he had pinned down the blue squid by getting on top of his chest, but this report claimed otherwise. Contradictory evidence messed up so many trials, but they were the key to finding the truth anyway.

"Now then, squiddo. You don't know the truth yourself either, but you can't slip much past this old sea dog," Captain Cuttlefish reminded that he was not as senile as he appeared, "Just because I spend a lot of time lately alone in a valley with a very angry octopus trapped in a snow globe somehow beating me in board games, doesn't mean I've lost my good ol' sharp mind."

"…I have to go with ECO," Callie admitted. She agreed with ECO, unable to believe that Maize was a murderer despite the gruesome detail. All he had done for every squid, were things that no ordinary inkling would do which was why they were the Special Squid Services after all. They had all began to adopt his motto to do everything they could to help out everyone they could. The squishie asleep in her harness was one of the best things that had happened to her in her life, and Maize was the one who helped the adoption happen.

"They're right. I have an idea that can help though," Marie grinned, her sharp teeth showing agreement with her cousin. The two once again synced up with the same thoughts once again. Her words however scared their dear friend somewhat.

"Is it a good one?" Octoronia quirked. Fallow kept her hand tightly in Maize's, trying to find some support, but her usual cheery mindset was having immense trouble getting back up.

"Hypnosis! It's getting fresher every day. People are able to find things they've lost years ago by getting someone to access their mind. Though truth be told, some hypnotists are being sued for stealing coin card information," Marie happily exclaimed her idea. Maize did not know how to feel about this. It was not like he had much money. He had only fifteen-thousand coins, so if that got stolen, he did not care. However Maize did not know how to feel about letting someone go through his mind.

"Well, I guess if you think it'll help uncover the truth," Maize nodded, agreeing to the hypnosis attempt now that his wound was treated, and hopefully it was healing up as they spoke. He hated knowing that whenever he turned into a squid, it would be harder and quite painful to move around.

"Then it's settled! We'll all go with you!" ECO volunteered everyone without hesitation, that purple light not changing slightly at all. The other agents agreed happily, but were annoyed at how the robot had voiced their opinions for them. Captain Cuttlefish chuckled, watching all five of the female agents support Agent 3, a nice sight to his old eyes. It reminded him of some of his long deceased friends from the Great Turf War. He just hoped however that whatever this truth was to this murder, it would be good for Maize and not against him, because if it was, then there was a good chance the yellow inkling could end up right back where he was years ago, behind a set of bars and possibly with an extended sentence. The old squid put his faith in his grandsquids to be able to help him find out the truth, no matter the outcome.


	30. Memories

All the agents had went a very long distance in Inkopolis from Maize's home. They all wanted to be supportive for this attempt at hypnotism. Everybody was thinking the same. It seemed impossible for their best friend to be a murderer, but he insisted he was, from what he could remember, and some of the agents were mentally preparing themselves if they were wrong, some trying to come to terms. Imagining taking a murderer as a close friend, it would make each action more afraid and everything more timid.

"Are you sure this hypnotist is good…?" Maize half-heartedly asked the group, the Squid Sisters keeping particularly close to the now one tentacle squid. Callie had left Bondi with Captain Cuttlefish in the meantime.

"I've been to him twice in the last three months, mostly so I could relive memories. He's the best I know," Marie nodded, reassuring that this hypnotist was completely reliable. She loved reliving younger memories. The hypnoses was so great that it made her feel like she was actually there, experiencing everything all over again. She could never convince Callie to try it, however. She was too afraid to allow someone to hypnotize her.

"We'll wait out here," Octoronia claimed. She seemed more concerned about her robotic sister ever since she saw her emotional cortex light turn purple. Even if it was gone now, there was still a worrying sign.

"You'll do fine. Just go in and your memory will refine!" Fallow hummed in rhyme, Maize smirking. He thought this would be a waste of time, but if the captain believed he was not the murderer, it was at least worth investigating the case being closed or not. The yellow inkling was unable to be put on trial again for it due to double jeopardy. A sentence already had been given and completed technically for the crime. Maize was thankful though that he had his friends with him for this horrid delve back into his past. He began to step inside the building, the door closing loudly behind him.

"Hello?" Maize chimed while approaching the front desk. This place looked like nothing special. It was a generic wooden interior for an empty waiting room. Eerily, there was no one behind the desk either. He pondered if it was closed and the main workers had just forgot to lock the door and turn out the lights. He suddenly heard a loud snapping of fingers, followed by the sound of the calm ocean around him.

Maize barely had closed his eyes for a few seconds when he opened them again. He looked around he found himself sitting on a sandy beach. There was nothing but the sand, a few trees around and the ocean calmly drifting in and out, slowly getting closer and closer with each passing second. All the inkling felt like doing was sit there. The wind blowing across his body felt great. The ocean water began to reach him, splashing against his lower body before receding.

"Good evening! Welcome to my office," Maize suddenly heard a very high pitched voice ring out. He looked to his left. There was an older squid standing beside him who had dark green tentacles that were tied up behind his head. The inkling was wearing a pair of glasses and a black business suit, with a form of clip on bow tie.

"…huh?" Maize saw the older inkling offer his hand to him. He extended his hand and grabbed it. Suddenly, everything changed. Agent 3 was no longer on this beach he had a vision of now, but instead on a very relaxing chair he was in a regular office that was plastered in tons of photos and paintings

"I said welcome to my office, mister Maize. I'm Ao," Ao introduced himself, his hands still on Maize's. Maize pulled back his hand in confusion.

"He-hey! How'd you know my name?" Maize was surprised. He felt like he had been injected with more of that medicine Cornell had on him, but oddly there was no numbness to his body, but just a calm sensation with a lacking pain.

"Why, you told me it of course. You last visited that beach when you were six, correct? In Seaside Hill," Ao claimed. Maize went wide eyed, looking at this odd man before him, unsure of what to think. He had no idea where he was at the moment.

"Are you a psychic?"

"No, I'm a hypnotist. My methods insist on my patients not just opening their mouths but their minds for me" Ao the squid happily hummed. He had already hypnotized Maize and gathered information from him while he was out of it. The Special Squid Services member wondered how long he had been spaced out for.

"…wait, of course… that place, right? My parents would take me and my sister to that fresh beach all the time. It was one of the only fresh water beaches around," Maize answered, not wanting to fight against the hypnotizing methods. If relaxation was the best way to access memories, then he was ready for it. He had not gotten a real rest in quite some time. Fresh water beaches were quite rare nowadays, but they were great to him. All of those fun memories he had on the vacations soothed his brain.

"And what are your parent's names?" Ao requested.

"…my mom's name is Apricot. Dad's was Arylide," he responded. The hypnosis specialist got up from his chair and walked over a nearby desk, beginning to rummage through it.

"What is it you want to be reminded of? A faded cherished memory? Some peace to settle your mind? Where you left your keys?" Ao questioned, wanting to know what specifically his patient needed to find out about. Maize opened his mouth. Initially he wanted to say the age when he was fifteen and what had happened with Cyan, but he hesitated. Being offered the chance to have one of his more cherished memories revisited sounded great.

"…can you help me see my mother again?" Maize asked, aware that there was some psychiatry involved with this, considering this was his mental state being perused.

"Apricot is deceased?" Ao quirked, holding a super sea snail shell, the green slime within it being safely contained so it would not spill out.

"No, it's just… I haven't seen her since I was really young," Maize shook his head. He hoped his mother was still alive, but none of the family had any form of interaction with her since she left. He watched the hypnotist open the container and grab a few other odd things from jars off his shelf. He was beginning to mix into the slime.

"Mhm… you're yearning for an era that has been long gone, but it is not healthy for you. It can lead to depression which can be very hard to treat," Ao warned while approaching holding the super sea snail shell, its mixture being quite strong in scent that it smelled like overcooked vegetables crushed together into one. He held the shell out to the yellow inkling.

"If you wish to, then I ask you allow me to give you this. It will help you keep more conscious in your memories, but you must follow my exact orders," Ao claimed, Maize taking the mixture. He was unsure what to do now. He was becoming afraid at how serious the psychiatry specialized hypnotist was sounding.

"Now then, Maize. Drink it and we can begin. Lucky that I have no other patients today," the hypnotist insisted. Maize always knew how much Spyke the sea urchin wanted this slime, but he had no idea why. He complied, tilting the shell back and beginning to drink the mixture. It felt like a cocktail of poison to his taste buds. He gagged and coughed, holding his throat once he finished, gasping for breath.

"Good! You did not even vomit. Usually it takes a few sips before anyone gets used to it," Ao laughed, enjoying that look on his patient's face. Maize began to notice the odd feeling beginning to overwhelm him again like back in the waiting room. He was noticing everything around him in the office beginning to fade out.

"Now, blow into the shell like it is a mighty horn for war with all your breath," he added. Maize nodded, slowly taking in a deep inhale and then putting the shell to his lips. He let out a huge exhaust of his breath, hearing the shells noise echoing loudly. Maize opened his eyes, continuing blowing the shell horn, seeing odd lights coming from the shell that kept getting brighter, and brighter, until the room was engulfed by it. Maize found himself standing in a completely white room.

"…Ao?" Maize panted as he called out. The shell was now gone. Everything was bleak and empty, but when the yellow squid turned around, he notice another place. A place that he could describe as a home. He was standing on a wooden floor in a nice kitchen. Everything looked very big, twice his size, but something was not right.

"Huh?! I-I'm a squirt again!" Maize gasped in awe. His voice was a lot different now. He looked to the oven, seeing his reflection in the reflective material. He was back to his very young self, seeming only nine years old. Squirts were toddler squids, who then became fully grown inklings at the age of fourteen, and no longer were considered squishies when they reached five.

"I… looked like this?" Maize had both of his tentacles again. It felt like it was never bit off, but when he was this age, he never expected to see what his older self would become or what would happen. No one could predict that kind of future, but he was mostly happy with his adult self. The young squirt was wearing a brightly colored orange shirt that had lion-like black stripes on it in random places. Maize was missing his glasses, but his vision felt fine. Suddenly he heard footsteps behind him on the wooden floor.

"Little bro! You know you can't be in the kitchen alone! You could hurt a bone!" an all too familiar voice rhymed. Maize turned around, looking up to see his older sister standing before him. She looked to be her same, rhyming self. She was still dawning the same bag on her side, carrying an oxygen tank and the same machine that forced her heart to pump. She was wearing a black shirt that seemed to be promoting a rock band called Dubstomp, which sounded silly, but they used to be quite popular. They would inevitably wind up falling out of style years later.

"Sorry…" Maize said, Fallow coming over and picking him up, holding him happily in her arms. The light red squid had only recently turned fourteen, and now was a full-fledged inkling. It was nice, considering how long it took to just become one. Now she just had to work on her changing to her squid form easier.

"Mom would be alarmed, if you were harmed," Fallow smiled while carrying him. The yellow inkling was so astonished by everything. It was perfectly detailed. Every last thing he remembered of his old home was here. This hypnotism was working quite well. He felt like he was having a very lucid dream. Maize had been carried to the living room, seeing all of his old toys. His older sister put him down, being left to the task to try and entertain him while their mother cleaned up. Maize saw the familiar stairwell leading upstairs. There was quite the mess for a living room, seeming like spring cleaning had just rolled around.

"Where's mom?" Maize requested. He wanted specifically to see his mother, which was why he drank that nasty super sea snail slime mixture in the first place.

"She is trying to clean the upstairs hall. She means to finish it all by nightfall," Fallow answered, rubbing her little brother's head. His sister had not changed at all, maybe because of the forced rhyming that kept throwing him off. He looked up at her, putting on his best upset expression he could. His sister sighed, going off to get their mother, not wanting to deal with him crying. Maize wanted to continue enjoying his memories while he could, but he was aware that it had to be brief. He had to look into the day of Cyan's murder, but for some reason, this was a key moment in his memory that refused to leave. He finally heard footsteps coming back down the steps that began to give the yellow squirt a bright smile, seeing Fallow walking alongside the one who Maize missed for the longest of time. His own mother, who he was so desperate to see again that he resorted to hypnotism, just to see her in his memories, the one place she could never vanish from.

"I want to fulfill that promise..."


	31. Tradition

**Authors note: Hi all! I have you another special long chapter today, and I hope you enjoy it! Have a good day, and take care!**

"My little squirt wanted to see me?" Maize heard. He had a bright smile across his face. Standing before him beside his older sister was an older squid girl who had yellowish orange tentacles that were done up into an odd spiral style, some old hair style that the yellow squirt knew was going to fall out of style in a year or two. She was wearing a green dress that had cherry blossoms painted on it that had faded quite a lot.

"Mom!" Maize ran up to her, hugging her tightly, only able to reach her waist. He never had realized it until now that he was quite short for his age. Yet here she was, the mother he missed so dearly. Fallow was sitting on the couch, just letting their mother handle whatever the young squirt wanted.

"Oof! …You sure are acting odd tonight," Apricot smiled, rubbing her son's head before he broke their embrace. She crouched down to his height.

"Are you excited that dad's coming home tonight?" his mother asked. Maize shook his head. He had not even remembered that part of his memory that had slipped him entirely. His father often was always away trying to work on construction.

"No… I just missed you," Maize sniffed. He sure felt like the toddler squid he was back then. He felt his mother's arms wrap around him before picking him up. He felt nothing but calmness feeling her skin.

"Missed me? I barely left you with your sister for ten minutes, but I guess that's my fault for promising her you'd give her no trouble," Apricot giggled, finding her son so silly at times. He blushed, embarrassed, though his mother began to head back toward the stairwell that was two flights of steps just to get upstairs.

"I think we should take you to bed early," Apricot claimed. This was one part of the memory that always struck harder, when his family was giving him the chance to stay up an hour later than usual, and him sadly failing usually had him fall asleep on the couch or the floor from tiredness. He just wanted to fulfill that promise to his mother he had broken this very night as he was being carried off upstairs. The yellow squid wished this would never end. Even if it was just hypnosis or a dream, he just wanted it to last, but he doubted it would for long.

"Mom… why do you make so many promises?" Maize requested to know while they arrived to the upstairs hall. There was nothing up there but paintings lining the walls between the doors of each room. His mother seemed more curious by his inquiry of this. Her squirt had asked this a lot ever since he began to talk when he was very young.

"Well, honey… it's just what I chose to do for the Dagenhart tradition," Apricot stated while they went to the third door in the hallway. Upon opening it, they revealed a small room. Within it seemed relatively simple. With one tug of the string, a lamp was turned on, showing the room being filled with toys, a bed to the side right near a closet, and a small table used for mostly drawing.

"Our tradition… why did you make promises your tradition?" Maize continued his questions. The Dagenhart tradition was what every member in the family tree had one point in their lives, where they made a decision, and that was what they would swear would help what remained of the world. It sounded silly, but it was the determination that each decision brought was immense and endless. The young squid got put down on his bed, his mother making him rest his head on the pillow before she began to pull his blankets up over him.

"Honey, every Dagenhart wants to help make the world a better place. Your grandpa's decision for the family tree is helping squids reunite with their lost pets. I watched all of those smiles and happy reunions that were caused by his promises, along with his generosity. So I decided to help with my promises to make sure I never let anyone down if I could," Apricot exclaimed. She seemed to become saddened toward the end of her explanation. She felt her son's hand brush against her cheek. Maize hated seeing her upset. It was weird that his memory for this was vague, but everything was becoming clearer.

"Promises are really hard to keep, honey… but despite that, your mom does her best, but… I feel like I've let a lot of others down along the way," Apricot reassured that she had no regrets despite her past choices. She never liked to fail anyone with her promises. She found it hard to go even more than a day without making one to Maize. She kissed his forehead before standing up.

"And what was dad's decision when he became a Dagenhart?" Maize asked. His mother sighed. Thinking about her husband's decision seemed a bit of a tough topic. His father had gotten the last name Dagenhart once they married. Apricot decided to tell him anyway.

"Honey… your dad said his decision was to help build the world. But I don't think he ever meant it. I don't think he's meant a lot of things," she said beginning to go toward the door.

"Wait, mom!" Maize called out, sitting up from his blankets, seeing his mother's reassuring eyes look to him. This was the one time he never kept that promise.

"I love you… you know that, right?" Maize stated. He and his mother promised to always tell each other that at the start and end of the days, though this memory was going a lot different than how he remembered it. Maize knew this night all too well. Instead of the calm talk, the two had wound up having a fight and not speaking to each other for the night. He had to wonder was this the hypnotism at work, or was it what his mind truly wanted to happen tonight to fulfill that broken promise.

"Honey, I always love you no matter what. I promised you that the day you were born," Apricot smiled before she turned off the lamp and closed the door. Those words felt nothing but the truth. The yellow squid barely had rested his head on the pillow for one second as his eyes began to flutter and his eyelids felt heavy, seeing the bedroom beginning to become blurry. He rolled over and looked at a small cat shaped clock on the wall, its tail swishing back and forth each second that passed.

"Wa-wha?" Maize got right out of bed, upon seeing the time. It was now three in the morning. His heart was beginning to race. He knew what came next in this memory. He ran across the wooden floor to his door. He had to jump up to reach the knob before pulling it open. All the lights in the house were off.

"Mom!" Maize screamed while rushing for the end of the hall, running past Fallow's room. It was completely dark. When he ran by, that entire room seemed to change for a moment. It looked like the door had become a glass wall and was peering into a hospital room. His older sister lay on it with machines hooked up to her, looking like she only had just recently gotten out of surgery. Maize grit his teeth, continuing to run. He could not let his other memories stop him. When he ran to his parent's door he banged on it loudly.

"Mom! Open up, please!" Maize cried. The lights were on under the door, but all he could hear was shouting. Either he was being ignored, or the two inside could just not hear him.

"I don't care! I can't believe I did all that for you, just to find out it was a big waste of time! To know you're a good for nothing angler-" Apricot's voice chimed before a loud slap rung out.

"You should be thankful! I saved your entire family from bankruptcy over that stupid tradition. You can at least understand why I needed some relief from another squid," a deep male tone rung out. Maize knew it was his father, and he sounded annoyed at the moment and uncaring. The young squid had hear his parents fight many times, but it never got this bad. It seemed like one of the most painful things in his nightmare of what used to be a pleasant memory.

"Please open!" Maize bashed the door one more time with his small hands. Just like that, he began to hear a creaking the door slowly opened. However, all he saw was a completely dark room. It was his parent's bedroom, but all that he saw was a queen sized bed and one squid in it with big yellow tentacles, his back turned. He was Arylide, Maize's father, and he was deep asleep, but looked quite battered and bruised. The entire room seemed heavily damaged like a brutal fight had erupted. The young squirt began to feel his head throbbing in pain. He groaned, shaking, when he began to hear the sound of a car engine. His eyes wide, he darted out of the room, almost tumbling down the steps.

"No…" Maize panted. His head felt ready to explode. He was noticing missing pieces of the living room which were just replaced with an abyss of darkness. The glass on the front door seemed to show the same thing outside. More things began to vanish around him.

"No! …I can't let her go! Not again!" he screamed, holding his head in pain, noticing one of his tentacles beginning to vanish and return back to the stub it was. He was starting to turn back into his normal age, reverting back to an inkling. It seemed like he was reaching the end of his memory and he would soon snap out of it. He opened his eyes, grabbing the doorknob and jerking it open.

"Mom…" Maize weakly spoke. Darkness was everywhere outside. He stepped out of the door of his old home, when everything behind him seemed to vanish shortly after. There was nothing but the dark void. He fell to the ground weakly, the pain in his head seeming to be going away.

"Why… why couldn't I do anything?" Maize spoke to himself. A second felt like an hour as the pain in his head was vanishing. He grit his teeth, throwing a fist downward. To his own surprise, he hit something. He expected it to miss harmlessly, but he felt something soft against his knuckle. He looked down, fixing his glasses now that they were back with him. Maize saw a small tuft of grass, and beneath his hand was somewhat wet with morning dew. Maize boy pulled one blade of the grass. He watched the small tuft suddenly erupt into an entire huge patch of land. That calm feeling was back. He wondered what was going on.

"Some tradition… that I did nothing but fail…" Maize sighed, noticing a light begin to shine from his left side. He looked over, seeing a vague car parked there. He recognized it quite easily as his mother's.

"I wouldn't think so," an all too familiar tone spoke beside him. Maize looked to his right, seeing his mother once again. She was on her knees beside him. He hugged her tightly, just glad to see her again, but he never had any recollection of this memory. It was all confusing. There was no faded thoughts to it, almost like it was newly created.

"You always were momma's squirt," Apricot giggled, running a hand through his tentacle. She had a smile, but also seemed upset to see his present state, the missing tentacle and the cuts and bruises all over him was hard to see.

"You've grown up into a great squid," she claimed. Maize looked up at her, looking ready to burst into tears. There were a few trees growing up into the clearing around, like they were in a growing forest.

"I failed the Dagenhart tradition, mom. I failed our decision! …I haven't been able to keep my promise to you all these years… and I keep feeling like I'm failing everyone else," Maize sobbed, his head buried in her chest. He felt horrible, not ever being able to tell his mother he loved her daily, not seeing her for so long. She had left one night suddenly out of the blue, all after another disagreement between his parents that had escalated far out of control. And her young son witnessed her pulling out of that very driveway, it was deep in his mind still.

"Honey, I'm glad you took up my tradition to your decision… but the tradition only wants you to try your best. And I don't think you've failed at all," Apricot reassured, not believing it in the slightest. He saw her stand up before she held her hand out to him.

"Come on. Let's go for a walk," she insisted. Maize happily put his hand in his mother's, their fingers interlocking with each other as he followed her, the two of them beginning to walk along toward the trees. The forest seemed to get thicker the further they went.

"I know that things get tough, and I feel horrible that you made your decision to change the world with promises for the tradition, all because I had gone. I never wanted to influence it like that. But you're doing far better at it than I ever did," Apricot claimed. Maize did not even know if this was his mind talking to him or his mother anymore. Everything was so confusing. He still was upset, but he wondered what she meant.

"The promises… these promises made me feel great. I've broken a good few and they really hurt other squids… but I felt like they all were pointless, since you and dad aren't around now…" Maize stated. He was glad he took the promises as his decision for the tradition. There was no turning back on what was selected in the Dagenhart tradition. Otherwise it would be a great act of shame.

"You really think they've all been pointless?" Apricot could not help but tilt her head as the two stopped walking. No matter how far they got, they felt like there was a lot more to the forest than he knew. He could only look at his mother, unsure how to respond.

"…I don't know," he shook his head with no real thought of it. His mother pointed ahead.

"You need to remember all your promises have done. Walk a bit, I'll catch up," Apricot motioned him to continue without her. Maize was reluctant to leave his mother, even if this was an insane hallucination. He wanted to stay with her, but he hesitantly nodded, beginning to walk on his own. He did not get far before something caught his eye.

"I promise, cap'n! I'll complete this mission!" Agent 3's voice chimed, but he did not say anything. Maize looked over, between the two trees he saw looked almost like a projected image displaying Octo Valley. Captain Cuttlefish stood before Agent 3. Maize recognized this as a good while ago. It was when the great zapfish had gone missing, and he had become a new agent.

"Squiddo, that look in your eye shows nothing but determined spirit. Nothing'll stop you!" Captain Cuttlefish saluted wishing him good luck on the mission. Maize watched his past self on the video, who went onward to climb into the kettle for a mission. Shortly after, the projection suddenly vanished.

"What… is this?" Maize asked, continuing to walk forward. The next two trees began to show another projection that showed Agent 3 standing before Callie and Marie, though back then he had no idea who they were. He only knew them as Agents 1 and 2, a not so subtle pair with their identities.

"I can't believe gran… I mean, the captain let his guard down…" Agent 1 spoke, her big black sunglasses not doing the best job of hiding her obvious upset feeling.

"I can," Agent 2 shook her head, wearing a medical mask that covered her nose and mouth, even though she was not sick. She wore it for her disguise, as well as a green hat.

"I'm sorry. I should have been here," Agent 3 apologized with his splatterscope on his back. Maize recalled the times on this projection quite well. Callie and Marie were both just as in sync back then as they were now. The yellow inkling remembered how it felt like when the captain got squidnapped by the octarians while he was off on a mission.

"Hey, it'll be alright," the disguised white inkling stated, the other agents confused by Agent 2's claim. She was oddly calm about everything.

"You sure are optimistic. That's really nice to have around," Agent 3 chuckled. Maize really could not believe he said that at that very time. Those were not the exact words he would use to describe Marie nowadays. She tended to keep good control of herself to stop from getting over excited, but that optimistic mindset was still around.

"I'm not hoping the captain will be fine. I know he will be. It's practically a rule of war to not hurt someone unable to fight back since he is really old," Agent 2 declared. However her disguised cousin seemed a bit more concerned at that.

"Those rules are old… like really ancient! I doubt the octolings of today even know of it…" the disguised Callie added. Those rules of war were new when their grandfather was probably only twenty years old.

"I promise, I'll make sure the cap'n alright," Maize bowed to the disguised Squid Sisters. They both looked to each other before looking back at him.

"We're not letting you do this alone. We're agents too, after all! If there are going to be any promises of heroism, it'll be from all of us, together!" Marie declared, a smile showing underneath her medical mask. The projection ended shortly after the three agents put their hands together like some kind of motivational chant. Maize chuckled, seeing these memories. They felt so old, but he loved recalling them, but he wondered how long this walk would be. He was worried about his mother abandoning him once again. He had to keep reminding himself he was in his own head to try and stay emotionally in control.

The next projection Maize saw was the dramatic scene he recalled quite well, watching the great zapfish itself get sucked up into a machine and seeing the giant device lower, unveiling DJ Octavio within a special mechanical weapon resembling a DJ booth, with two large metal fists on it. The sides of the turntables had at least hundreds of wasabi sticks, some of which the octarian leader himself was holding in his tentacles. Off to the side was Captain Cuttlefish who was tied up to a metal post.

"Back down now and return the great zapfish!" Agent 3 angrily called out, alone with his splatterscope in hand his yellow ink tank on his back. Maize could not believe how cheesy he sounded like, almost like some dime store action movie hero.

"You annoying inkling! Who do you think you are?!" DJ Octavio laughed mockingly at the empty threat before spinning his turntables hard, watching one of the two metal fists go flying. The yellow squid charged his charger before letting go of the trigger, blasting a strong burst of yellow ink which sent the fist flying backwards, hitting the DJ booth and DJ Octavio in it, sending the entire machine back. Some the projection cut off once the fight was beginning to get rougher.

"Whoa…" Maize saw the projection start back up. Now it was displaying another segment of the great showdown. Maize was panting, his ink tank near empty. He was trying to refill it, but DJ Octavio was refusing to go down, no matter how hurt he was.

"How dare you!" DJ Octavio growled, having just received another strong blow to his DJ booth. Suddenly, his own personal beats began to change quite drastically to another type of music. He stomped angrily trying to fix it back.

"What's this? Where mah beats?!" the DJ octarian roared in fury. This was not his kind of jams. Suddenly Agent 3's radio rung out.

"Agent 3? Can you hear our song?" Agent 1 asked over their frequency.

"Radio override activated!" Agent 2 chimed in. Maize could see in the distance that Captain Cuttlefish was breaking out of his bindings. That music gave him some odd strength. The yellow squid could not believe what he was. Watching the scene itself again was quite nice to revisit.

"Incoming!" Maize heard, stepping aside to see two blurry squids, super jumping in and landing beside him. Agents 1 and 2 were now alongside him, one wielding a krak-on roller and the other wielding a squiffer. They were both ready to go with Agent 3.

"Final push! Chaaarge!" the projection ended as the three of them charged toward the evil DJ. Maize could not help but realize it. After that final battle with DJ Octavio, they wound up returning the great zapfish to its proper place.

"Saving Inkopolis… my little boy," Apricot said. He felt his mother's hand on his back. He looked up at her, feeling embarrassed.

"Yeah… without DJ Octavio around, the octarians decided to go try and live in peace," Maize claimed. These projections were nice. He never could recall these memories as perfectly as they showed. His mother seemed to enjoy seeing these projections as much as he did. The next one however looked all too familiar.

Maize and his mother saw the projection show another familiar memory to the yellow squid. It was his first mission he was in, and this was the part where he was standing in Auburn and Cobalt's apartment. The female squid was sobbing after she had exclaimed about how her life would be in ruin if her missing brother never came back.

"I will find him for you. I promise," Maize swore, seeing the dark red inkling drying the tears from her eyes. She seemed all too thankful for what he was doing.

"And how did that promise go for you?" Apricot asked. Before the yellow squid could respond, the projection displayed the club that he had paid a lot to get into. Even now his coin card still hurt. It was showing the part where the yellow inkling had just shot Rose off the counter with his splatterscope and broke her ink tank shortly after. The club owner was requesting him to splatter her already.

"I'm not the type to hurt squids without reason. Even if you tried to splat me, I'm not going to do it to you," the projection of Agent 3 spoke. Shortly after, it changed fast to the apartment once more where Auburn and Cobalt had been reunited.

"It… well, it went nicely," Maize told his mom as the projection showed Auburn turning over the nice crescent moon shaped earring as a reward for doing it. After this mission was accomplished, the Special Squid Services website began to gain some popularity.

"So, do you still feel like your promises do nothing?" his mother joked. He sure did not think one example really made a difference. Then again, as far as he was aware, she was in his own head, so he wondered why he was showing everything to her. He just played along, not minding the spiritual journey. A hunch told him though that this hypnosis session was going to be expensive.

"I like helping everyone I can out. The promises I make give good motivation," Maize said as the projection began to change. It showed the three original agents at the Squid Sisters' home. Marie was leaving the room to change out of her disguise and left the other two agents with Bondi. Agents 1 and 3 were discussing what to do now.

"Everything we do, small or big, no matter what, will change some squids life for the better, if that is what we choose to do… and I choose to do it with my promises!" the projection of Maize stated. Hearing himself, Maize could not deny the Dagenhart tradition was deep inside of him. He felt his mother hug him, watching the scene where Callie agreed to adopt Bondi.

"Aw… you gave a girl a squishie? I thought it would be with Aero…" Apricot admitted. Maize rubbed his head, not bringing up the divorce he was happy to have gotten, though he was noticing the projection was showing oddly specific key points or briefly flashing over other ones. He wondered what it meant.

"Heh… yeah… Callie loves him a lot. Marie does too, even if she does not show it," the yellow inkling declared. However he noticed the projection come to a halt. No more were being displayed.

"You said your promises were failing. How do you feel now seeing those?" Apricot requested an answer, Maize then noticing that the surrounding area was beginning to get darker. That abyss was coming back and he knew what that meant. His mind was either beginning to go nuts, or it was the end of the line of meeting his mother in his own mind.

"…I still like to believe my promises help. I do make a lot and a lot of the ones I complete change lives entirely! ...and you only got to see not even a quarter of them," Maize exclaimed. He was beginning to show that fiery passion in his heart. His mother hugged him, happy to hear her son's flared spirit once more as the ground around them was beginning to slowly vanish.

"But… I killed a squid… and I can't remember much about it," Agent 3 sighed. He was anticipating another trip into his mind because he spent the first one just to revisit his mother, and that had turned into a nightmare.

"You couldn't have, Maize," Apricot stated. Her son was confused. Everything was so vague, but the contradicting evidence was the only real thing that made him have doubts about the murder.

"Why? I may be a good squid now, but murder is murder… if I did it, then I'm just some repressed monster," Maize responded, beginning to grow depressed. Before he noticed it, the last two trees began to play another projection. It seemed to show Maize when he was a six years old squirt, his older sister Fallow only ten. She did not have any medical equipment attached to her, but they both seemed to be sniffling, looking beaten and upset, standing in front of their mother.

"You two are brother and sister! I shouldn't have to say this. You two are supposed to protect everything you care for. I know you care for each other, and I won't be having this kind of rough housing," Apricot's projected voice spoke. Fallow was keeping quiet as she walked away, leaving the little yellow squirt to their mother.

"Honey… why did you two fight again?" Apricot asked her son to speak, though he just was not the best at it yet.

"Fwallo kept pwulling my tentacles! Swo I shoved her down the hill…" young Maize sniffled. Things went to a rough fight from there. The yellow inkling watched his past self, unable to remember this at all. He could never see himself hurting Fallow at all.

"I want you to promise me something, Maize. I want you to promise never to hurt anyone as long as you can help it, no matter how much they upset you in these situations. You have to show how strong you are inside," Apricot continued, wanting a promise from her son for that. Maize looked to his mother, the young squirt nodding, aware that fighting was a last resort unless the situation demanded it.

"Yes, momma… I won't hwurt anyone if I can hwelp it," he agreed. The projection began to vanish on an image of the two hugging. Before he knew it, the entire forest was gone, and it was just him and his mother standing on a small piece of grass.

"You… you really believe I couldn't have killed Cyan? Because of a promise I made thirteen years ago?" Maize couldn't deny how ridiculous that sounded, but his mother had a smirk as she kissed his forehead.

"You're a Dagenhart. You have a spirit just like mine. I know my son could never kill no matter what. I hope you believe it, too. Take care, Maize," Apricot stated. Maize watched his mother begin to slowly vanish, much to his surprise. He stood there, tears forming in his eyes. This hypnosis session really was messing with his head. The last of the grassy land under his feet was beginning to vanish, and he was alone in the surrounding darkness.

"…Yeah… I believe it mom! I'll find the truth! I promise!" Maize called out as the grass finished vanishing. He fell into the dark abyss, seeing his few teardrops fall slightly above him off his face. Before he knew it, he lost all vision, and everything went white.

"Ahh!" Maize screamed, sitting up, panting and sweating. He had been lying on the chair of the hypnotist's office. He looked around.

"How did it go?" he heard, looking over to see Ao, the psychiatrist hypnotist, just sitting at his desk and drinking a cup of tea. The yellow squid wiped some of the sweat off his head before standing up.

"…it went… well, traumatic. Horribly traumatic… how long have I been out?" Maize truthfully answered, looking around to see his splatterscope and his ink tank resting nearby, the one ECO and Octoronia had put quite a lot of effort into assembling. He picked it up and put it over his shoulder, putting the full yellow ink tank on his back.

"Oh, you've only been asleep for an hour," Ao claimed. Maize felt shocked.

"What! An hour?! No way!" he responded.

"Yes way," the psychiatrist nodded, smirking. It was unbelievable, Maize thought, as it felt like he had been asleep for an entire year. He rubbed his head, glad to have done it anyway. He wanted to face this as much as he could. Now Maize had a new perspective to tackle this murder from; with nothing but confidence to prove that he was not the killer. He felt greater than ever.

"Err… how much do I owe you?" he hesitantly inquired.

"Hm? Oh, only a million coins for the expensive medicine and me making sure your friends did not interrupt your session."

Maize almost had a heart attack, hearing how much he owed, rubbing his one tentacle nervously. He was left in a position, unsure what to do. He only had one real option left; to request financial aid from the Squid Sisters, and Maize hated to take advantage of his best friends like that. He stepped outside to try and request their help and tell everyone his new revelation.


	32. Splitting up

Maize had walked out of the hypnotist's office with a new perspective of his thought process. When he stepped outside, he saw his friends all waiting outside, and they looked to have a mix of slight boredom and worry.

"Finally! We heard screaming and tried to come in, but the doctor wouldn't us in," Callie claimed. She had grown quite worried for their dear friend. Agent 3 was not surprised, having presumed he had done quite a bit of screaming in his sleep, but none of them had any idea about what.

"He's a hypnotist with a minor is psychiatry," Marie corrected. He was very far from doctor and she had been to him multiple times before.

"Sorry. It was really crazy…" Maize apologized for worrying them, ECO pulling him into a hug. The robotic octoling was beginning to gain her sister's concern, but they had to focus on the mission at hand.

"Well? Do tell! Did you remember in great depth, about Cyan's tragic death?" Fallow requested, wanting to know immediately. Her younger brother nodded. It felt nice to see her again, especially after some of the nightmarish visions he witnessed inside the hypnotic trip. He broke the embrace with ECO.

"Yeah… I know one thing. I'm not the real killer!" Maize stated, immediately noticing a lot of smiles breaking out on the other agents' faces.

"Oh, that's such a relief," Marie let out a long sigh. It felt like someone had been holding onto her tentacles and freezing them. Her nerves had been bugging her for the longest time in doubt of it.

"I knew you couldn't have killed another squid!" Callie jumped in joy, gaining a sarcastic glance from her cousin.

"What? You cried a little back at his place," Marie reminded, embarrassing the black inkling who seemed to gain a slight blush, recalling how close she had come to breaking down.

"So who's the real killer?" Octoronia wondered aloud, the same thought on all the inklings' and octolings' minds. Maize did seem detoured. He had a pretty good idea on who the real murderer might be, and as much, as he hated to think of it. He had no choice but to presume it, as that was his only lead.

"We need to find Fulvous. I need to talk to her. She might be the only one left who knows where the real killer is," Maize claimed. Just mentioning that squid's name made him afraid. He imagined feeling her teeth still ripping through his tentacle like he was sushi. No one questioned his judgment on this, but he was aware they all had to be careful, considering that this inkling specifically was out for revenge.

"Wh-what if she bites off our tentacles?!" Callie squeaked in fear. Clearly she had thought that Fulvous did that as a main form of assault, when in actuality, it was just the result of a struggle gone wrong between Maize and her, though a few of the others could not help but have the same worry.

"Mine are too thick to be bitten through," ECO chimed blankly. Octoronia was now pondering about how her own tentacles tasted, beginning to grow quite curious.

"We could find her easily, if no one does mind splitting up?" Fallow recommended searching in separate groups. There were six agents, after all, so pairs of two would make it simpler to cover more ground. Maize nodded in agreement, but before they could go anywhere, he had another sudden reminder hit him.

"Oh, uh… Callie, Marie… err… I hate to ask, but… I can't cover the bill for the session," Maize sheepishly admitted, hating to use his best friends' coin cards for his own problems. The white inkling rubbed her head, seemingly all too aware of the cost of these herself, considering how she had undergone a few sessions as well.

"A million coins, right? …yeah, I'll cover it, don't worry," Marie volunteered from her own savings. That was why she did not do these hypnosis sessions often. Their price made it a little hard to balance the worth of reliving a cherished memory repeatedly.

"Wait-! You've been spending millions on hypnosis?!" Callie gawked at her cousin, seeing the disguised squid stick her tongue out in mocking retort.

"If you tried it back when there was a half off special going on you'd see why" she claimed. Maize rubbed his eyes, glad he had her covering the bill.

"I promise I'll make it up to you, someday. I'll do anything in return for this. But right now we need to figure out who's goin' where. I was thinking me and ECO should go start at Arowana Mall," Maize suggested they split off into random pairs of two, not only to try and adjust to cooperating with the other agents.

"Uhh, how about I go with you instead. We can let ECO and Callie go check out Hammerhead Bridge," Octoronia instead insisted to fill in for her sister. ECO cast her an annoyed glance, the light on her chest turning red in irritation. For some odd reason the metallic octoling wanted to be around the yellow squid more.

"Alright… and Fallow, you and Marie can go check out the plaza," Maize exclaimed. His sister nodded before happily hugging Marie's arm, much to the famous squid's irritation. The light red tentacle girl seemed all too happy to be with her.

"Yay! I get to spend part of the day with you!" Fallow hummed happily.

"Joy…" Marie sighed, forcing the brain damage squid to let go of her arm before she went into the hypnotist's office to pay off the bill. So the group seemed to scatter instantly, Maize leaving with the disguised inventor octoling. Callie went with a rather annoyed ECO which made her worried that the metal octopus disliked her. She just tried to act calm, not wanting to upset the emotional cortex octoling.

"Soo… why'd you want me away from your sister so bad?" Maize questioned confusedly. It seemed like ever since his last trip to Mollusk Metropolis, the inventor octopus had begun to grow more nervous of the two's interactions. She tilted her head, lifting up her goggles slightly.

"Maize, I don't think I should tell you at all. Not just as an inventor trying to hide some secret awesome technology, but as a sibling watching out for her little sister," Octoronia claimed she was trying to take care of ECO. She did not mean to insult Maize, but clearly she had done that, judging by his quirked eyebrow. Agent 4 felt really bad for it.

"You think I could hurt her? I'm pretty sure she could break my wrist if I made her mad," Maize grinned. That same joyful inkling she knew was back once again. She shook her head.

"Well… I guess you're experienced enough in the area… but look. ECO has five emotions; anger, joy, sadness, shock and embarrassment," Octoronia tried to begin explaining. She had to think briefly before she spoke, not wanting to lose her squid friend in all the talk of techno babble that she specialized in.

"Yeah?" Maize nodded, so far understanding as they walked. The day seemed pretty nice at the moment. There were a lot of other squids out and some that they passed gave him an odd look because of that one tentacle that looked quite rough at the moment, but he was still happy to think he was not a murderer anymore. That had been a big burden to him for years. That finally was relieved, but he still had to prove it true.

"But she has a sixth emotion, and it's too hard to remove a feeling, even if she is a robot. I couldn't do it and failed, but I turned it somewhat off. I'm worried she activated it again unintentionally," the octoling said while biting her thumb, worried from recalling what this sixth emotion had done before.

"What is it? Please tell me it's not loathing," he requested, not wanting to imagine what that would be like. Agent 4 shook her head, seeming embarrassed now to mention it.

"No, it's love…" she simply said. The two stopped looking at one another. The yellow squid had a confused look now. She said he was a specialist in this area, but he doubted that at all. Just because he had a marriage did not mean he was a specialist at it.

"So? Why would you turn off her love emotion? Doesn't she love you?" Maize questioned. It was confusing since the robotic octoling showed deep care for her creator.

"I turned its hard effects and personality changes off! But like I said, I can't simply remove it because of that. No matter how much it's off, the emotion begins to turn itself back on with or without her aiding it," Octoronia exclaimed further. The yellow squid had his own concerned look, worried what she was getting at.

"Wait… don't tell me…" he muttered, burying his face in his hands, not wanting to hear the answer.

"Yeah… I'm worried ECO might love you," Octoronia declared just what he thought she was going to say. The inkling threw his arms in the air.

"I should not really be surprised! I really shouldn't… no such thing as calm and simple anymore! Nope! Everything's crazy! I may as well be too!" Maize hysterically laughed. How ridiculous all these missions had gotten had really started to mount up. They all never were as simple as they seemed. But now it was seeming like even his best friends were changing from simple to crazy and complex.

"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down! I didn't mean to make you go nuts… you should be flattered. It takes a lot to get that emotion to target another," Octoronia stated.

"But why me? Why did she fall in love with me?" he requested her to at least explain that, but she shrugged, unsure, never having a main idea behind that but only a theory.

"Well you see, I turned her love emotion off because… she got TOO attached to them and her last boyfriend… Well… he took advantage of her in ways that made me feel sick," Octoronia hated to imagine it. Maize began to calm down, but he felt bad. He bit his lip, unsure what to do. He did the only thing that really would come to his mind. If this was just a matter of love, he had to handle it himself, as long as ECO had her circuit boards straight and did not go crazy too.

"You know I wouldn't do anything to her. I promise to make sure this gets straightened out," Maize assured. He was not the type of squid who would be desperate enough to need a robot to get some small pleasure. This topic had gotten too embarrassing for the inventor octopus to continue discussing. Just imagining it all was beginning to drive her a bit insane. The two resumed their walk.

"Can you tell me who this killer is now? Why do you think Fulvous would know? She thinks it's you after all…" Octoronia requested to be let in on that in trade for the prior conversation and how she opened up about her own robotic sibling. Maize nodded, aware that the orange squid claimed she had witnessed him choke her brother to death. He believed this was not true at all.

"Because… well, when I was younger my parents would fight a lot and dad would keep going away for weeks at a time," Maize started. He had to delve back into his own memory for this, though this time, his mind was quite fresh in recalling each detail. That session really had been worth the money.

"I don't see what your parents have to do with this, but alright…" Octoronia just let him continue. She watched the yellow squid pull out his wallet and present the photograph of Cyan.

"I never paid much attention to it… but look at this," Maize pressured her to look at the photograph closely. She did, and so far she was seeing nothing special about it at all.

"Why do you have a picture of him?" she quirked curiously. That was the same thought the yellow squid had for the longest time, but the same answer was what he kept getting.

"I found it in my dad's drawers. Mom had vanished a year before after a fight, and dad shortly did too. Fallow wound up raising me herself after that," Maize claimed. Ever since he found this lone image in that drawer he had always wondered what it meant. It was not that old, only about five years of age to it being kept safely within the yellow squid's possession. Cyan had been murdered when he was fourteen, only a year younger than Maize, and this picture was taken during that very fourteenth birthday party, the time he would officially be a fully grown inkling.

"…look at his eyes and his tentacles," Maize requested. Octoronia did just that, trying to view the picture more closely in the specific areas he pointed out.

"…Maize, he has the same tinge you do… and your eye color… oh gosh!" Octoronia almost felt like she was going insane herself upon realizing it. Cyan had the same darkish yellow tinge at the end of his tentacles and his eye color was the exact same as Maize's. If looked closer the octoling swore they had similar facial features too. It was quite a shock but easy to miss.

"Yeah… I think I know what my parents last fought about now before mom left…" Maize committed to this mystery to be solved, but each new piece seemed to just lead to an unwanted path that he did not want to imagine, but all the evidence was beginning to make him look less like a murderer, and now there was only one real squid left that could be the killer.

"…you had a half-brother, and you didn't even know… I can't imagine how you're handling taking this all in at once," Octoronia returned the photo of his half-brother back. Maize put it back in his wallet next to his coin card, pocketing it. He did appear annoyed knowing this though.

"Yeah… to think that me and Fulvous have been suffering. Not because of what I did… but because of what I let my dad do," Maize stated. He was somehow involved with this murder that much, he could not deny, but he was far from being the true killer. The only option left was his father. It was safe to assume his dad had been having quite the odd affair in the past. He had to presume that uncovering this was the final straw that sent his mother away. The two could see Arowana Mall in the distance, both planning to try and find Fulvous and talk with her rationally about this.

"Whatever happened was out of my control, but it was buried on top of confusion and pain," Maize added. This had become a lot more than just a mission of clearing his own name and prove to his friends that he was innocent. It had a lot of personal anger being put into it his mother vanishing one night, suddenly the murder of a brother. He did not even know what he would do if Fulvous decided to even help them. They needed to be pointed in the right direction toward Arylide, his father.

"What'll you do… if you see your dad again?" Octoronia had to inquire. She had no clue what he would do. She saw the yellow inkling ball his fist up angrily, trying to calm himself down.

"I need to follow my tradition, and keep my promises no matter how old they are, and whatever I say to Fulvous and whatever I do to my father, I promise to make sure it only reveals the truth," Maize swore. This promise was to no one but himself and frankly that was all he needed right now. Octoronia had to admire that determination and pure blazing soul he had always burning with nothing but his tradition's strength, though the octoling wondered what he meant by tradition. She hoped to one day learn more from him when things calmed down. As for right now, she was more concerned about her sister and Maize, but the yellow squid was just wanting the truth. So the two entered Arowana Mall in hopes of finding Fulvous.


	33. Amiibos and Fulvous

Maize and Octoronia had arrived to Arowana Mall after their awkward conversation earlier and the yellow inklings claiming of his theory about who the true killer could be. When they arrived to the mall, they noticed that the outside was just as a buzz as the inside.

"Wow, the stores in here must be really crisp!" Octoronia said in awe, seeing the crowds, though she could not see some of the store windows which was a bit discouraging. She wanted to try some of these 'fresh' clothes. The yellow squid was trying to think on what could be causing a sudden attention in the mall. Suddenly it came to him.

"Oh… right. That new product was being hyped up to now. The new… what do they call it? …Amiibos?" Maize tried to recall. This place was crowded all for these amiibos. They had been hyped up over the course of a year for the best personal customizable toy that will ever hit the shelves, but apparently the appeal of this was something far deeper than he had no idea behind.

"Amiibos? They sound adorable!" Octoronia exclaimed. Now she was easily hyped up to see one as well, if they were able to even get close to the store. They had little chance to find Fulvous in this crowd, either. The yellow squid doubted that orange inkling would be here if she was hunting him down. He doubted that she would not be searching in the biggest crowds after all.

"…hey there," a familiar tone chimed up from the side. The octopus and inkling looked to their right to see Basil, who was sitting at one of the many empty tables of the food court. Everyone was just lining up that store so the other shops were looking a lot more insignificant at the moment, mostly because they had not prepared a huge stock supply of the amiibos.

"Uh… hi, Basil…" Maize awkwardly greeted Bondi's father. It was an unexpected run in, since the last time they crossed paths the yellow squid had almost ripped him apart.

"Oh! Is he a friend of yours?" Octoronia asked. The yellow inkling had no chance to speak up.

"Kind of," Basil claimed, taking off his backwards baseball cap and resting it on the table.

"I am?" Maize quirked confusedly while adjusting his glasses. He wondered if his hearing was going bad now. That would be horrible to have poor eyesight and poor hearing before he was even twenty years old, but he did not expect Basil to consider him a friend even once. The last time they met, Agent 3 had gave him quite the brutal reality check about how Bondi had almost died, just because his father wanted to get higher in ranked turf wars.

"Yeah… sorry about before… y'know…" Basil apologized. He sure had become a lot less arrogant now. The three then saw another familiar inkling approach.

"Ah! Maize! Hey there!" Maize suddenly got tackled into a tight hug. He recognized who it was. It was another blonde squid girl.

"Aureolin! Hey how have you been?" Maize asked, recognizing Aureolin quite easily. Octoronia could tell that her close friend had a bit of a past with the former couple. Aureolin had two shopping bags dangling from her wrist. On the side of the plastic bags were the shop's logo that read 'Amiibos incorporated'.

"We're doing a lot better… thanks to you," Aureolin claimed. She broke the embrace and went over to Basil, leaning down and kissing his cheek. He had a half-hearted smile on his face. Maize was surprised. From what he recalled, she had gained nothing but an undying hatred for what he had done. Suddenly things between them looked different. Both Aureolin and Basil were taking note of his stub of a tentacle, but both were trying to be polite and not gaze at it too much.

"You two are back together?" Maize questioned, doubting that would be a smart decision to attempt another relationship with someone like Basil. The green squid was keeping quiet as his girlfriend handed him one of the shopping bags. He pulled out a small box from it with a smile.

"Yeah! I know what you did to him Maize, but Basil has changed! He really has," Aureolin stated, though was aware of the reasonable skepticism considering all that the green inkling had done. Basil reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, tossing it across the table. The inventor octoling picked it up. This looked like a very complicated wall of legal text on the paper, but she tried her best to summarize it.

"As a result of a direct confession to the turf war officials which has been recorded, Basil Calhoun has been charged with repeated enemy weapon tampering on the third degree, as well as sabotaging teammates for coin bribes. As result, and after a lengthy discussion, we had decided to forbid Mr Calhoun from ranked turf wars for nine months. However, because he has come forward with his confession and had apparently repaid all of the victims and covered repair expenses, we of the officials have decided to shorten his ban to seven months instead. Once these months have passed, Mr Calhoun will receive eight months of monitoring. If he enters ranked turf wars however, he will be reset back to C-," Octoronia gladly read the lengthy letter aloud. After all she was used to looking over long manuals for new tools, so this was common to her.

"Wow… you went and got banned and lost your rank?" Maize asked, a little surprised that this would happen to the formerly ranked obsessed lunatic. Basil nodded at that.

"I got my friends to help back up my lie… I wanted to lose my rank on purpose. You really opened my eyes. I was tainting something that should be fun… but I'm aware I can't be forgiven for all I've done already… 'specially to my girlfriend and child," Basil exclaimed, aware that even if he never actively participated in ranked turf wars again, it would not change what he had done.

"Well… it takes a lot of guts to willingly face the officials," Maize nodded, giving him credit for having the courage and strength to try to change. Basil had to agree there that the officials were horrifying.

"How's Bondi doing? …with his new mom, I mean," Aureolin requested to know how their squishie was doing.

"We saw him on the tele the other day. I did not expect that at all," Basil stated, happy to see his son safe and healthy, and with someone to take care of him, but he did not expect him to be on television anytime soon.

"Well… I guess I can tell you. His new mom's Callie of the Squid Sisters. She took care of him while I looked for you both and after I promised Aure I'd find him a loving family. Simply put, I talked her into adopting him," Maize explained. They were the squishie's original parents, so he saw no harm in telling them about their son's new family. Hearing this surprised them both. They both thought that poor cameraman had been the one to adopt their son.

"Wow… the Squid Sister herself. I never thought a celebrity would be so kind…" Aureolin admitted. Maize could not deny that the Squid Sisters were even greater in comparison to other celebrities. At least those two topped the charts and had a great attitude for it. Then again, Maize was in debt a million coins to Marie, which worried him. If she ever wanted to, all she had to do was call him up and he would have no choice but to do whatever she needed him to do, but Maize just put hope that his friend would not take advantage of this debt too much once things calmed down.

"Is this one of those amiibos?!" Octoronia excitedly asked, having pilfered the box from Basil while he was distracted.

"He-hey! Those things are pricey!" Basil warned her not to break it, understanding her excitement, but coins were coins. They weren't easy to get especially without being able to enter ranked turf wars anymore. The disguised octoling nodded, promising she will be careful. She opened the box and saw a small figurine on a platform inside. It looked like a generic grey tentacle inkling boy figure with a white shirt and wielding only a small Tentatek weapon.

"What's so special about these? …I was expecting something… more advanced," Octoronia had no hesitation to stating her disappointment and confusion. Basil yanked it away from her. Maize had to agree that if a toy that looked like it was for squirts was this popular amongst every squid of all ages, then it had not remotely lived up to the hype.

"You need to know how to work it!" Aureolin retorted, holding it for a second before she gained a nervous look, returning it to her boyfriend.

"Basil, you show them how to work it," she said. The green inkling gained an unamused look, doubting she had any clue how to either. He placed it on the table and faced the amiibo figure toward him.

"You see, it registers the appearance of the squid in front of it. You just gotta push its head in, annnd…" Basil pushed the head of the generic amiibo male squid. With a loud click, it popped back up and a bright flash happened, blinding them momentarily, but it quickly wore off. The four of them saw a completely different amiibo figure. It had turned into a completely miniature version of Basil, and was now idly moving like it was waiting for orders.

"Whoa!" Octoronia gasped, almost wanting to pick up the Basil amiibo and take it apart to figure out how it worked.

"Wow… what can it do?" Maize questioned. These amiibos looked pretty awesome. If that was all they could do, it was pretty impressive.

"Well, they're mainly meant to just be for setting up strategies, but they usually obey voice command," Basil muttered while tapping his chin, thinking on what to do.

"Oh! I know… hey, mini me, go to her," the green inkling pointed to his girlfriend. The amiibo hopped off its small pedestal before going over to the yellow squid girl. She smiled, picking the tiny figure up and stroking it with one of her fingers.

"Well, that's pretty awesome… oh, err… we're looking for an orange squid girl, and she's extremely angry… you haven't happened to have seen one here, have you?" Maize suddenly wanted to question them, having only just realized how far off track he and his octoling friend had unintentionally gotten, and now had to snap out of it.

"Nice description…" Basil sarcastically commented. The yellow squid groaned at her boyfriends snarky retort.

"She has three ponytails and glasses," Agent 3 added. That extra detail seemed to get his partial friend's attention.

"Three ponytails? You think this has something to do with that fountain incident?" Aureolin responded, having some recollection of a squid matching that description.

"Fountain incident?" Octoronia requested her to continue. Basil pointed a thumb toward the very fountain where that dramatic meeting he had with Maize occurred.

"About twenty minutes ago from upstairs, some girl like that tackled another squid off a ledge, and they landed in the fountain. He kind of looked like you with the glasses," Basil continued. The more he looked back on it, the more it seemed like Maize was there. Fulvous was actively out hunting for the squid and mercilessly assaulting anyone that looked like him, until they either got splattered or she realized they weren't the exact blonde squid.

"Where'd she go? Please, it's important…" Maize looked ready to beg if he had to.

"Uhh… well, I think she headed toward Urchin Underpass," Aureolin did her best to recall. Urchin Underpass was another turf war location, but Maize did not like it, mostly because every time he tried to fight at the underpass, it went tragically wrong. The last time he fought there was a year ago, and he wound up fracturing his leg accidentally due to slipping off a high ledge. Ever since then, he actively requested stage updates from Callie and Marie before he went into the plaza battle tower, just to make sure it was not the stage up for battling.

"Come on, we gotta go! You two take care! Congrats on your relationship being back up!" Maize bid Aureolin and Basil farewell before he went onward with Octoronia. The green squid looked at his girlfriend who was still cuddling his amiibo clone.

"Can I have myself back now?" Basil requested.

"Aw, c'mon! He's got your same silly backwards hat," Aureolin giggled, wanting to keep toying with the toy doppelganger of her now slightly annoyed boyfriend.

Only a short bit of the ways outside of Arowana Mall, Agent 3's cellphone began to ring.

"Do you think one of our friends found her?" Octoronia wondered aloud, aware if their friends turned up nothing at their designated locations, they would check out other areas to investigate further for Fulvous. Maize shrugged before putting the phone to his ear.

"Y'ello?" he answered.

"Maize! Hey, has your search turned up anything?" Callie's voice spoke up, wanting to know if he had found anything so far.

"Oh hey, Callie… yeah, I got a lead. I'm going to look into now. What about you? How did your search go?" Maize responded, wondering how Agents 1 and 5 had done.

"Horrible! We tried to walk into Hammerhead Bridge, and they thought ECO was a bomb and that I was trying to prepare her to detonate! We got forced to leave or they'd call the police…" Callie exclaimed. She sounded upset to be practically accused of being a terrorist. The yellow squid knew how she felt about that accusation. He knew sometimes the Squid Sisters wanted to just rip their disguises off in public to get some sort of power back in their occasional struggles.

"Err… lo-look, don't get worked up about it. Why don't you go check out around Flounder Heights," Maize suggested, aware that the opportunity to check up on her son would be all too tempting to Callie, but as a turf war location, Flounder Heights also was not far out of the question for where Fulvous might be, if she was not at Urchin Underpass.

"Alright, I guess… call if you need us, and we'll come over," Callie bid her close friend goodbye before hanging up the phone. Maize rubbed his head, pocketing his phone.

"You know, that's not the first time my sister's been mistaken for a bomb," Octoronia commented while they continued their walk on the streets. They noticed though that the nice day that it was just a little ago was now looking like it was beginning to cloud up with a chance of rain.

"My condolences," Maize joked, being elbowed in the side by the octoling. The two had traveled for a short fifteen minutes before they were nearing Urchin Underpass. They could see a huge bridge up ahead which was quite high in the air, leading to the northern part of Inkopolis as a shortcut.

"Right… here we are," Maize looked around. There were a lot of other squids here, but they seemed more interested in their own self entertainment at the moment. Some had the new amiibo figures and were enjoying playing with them. Others were just relaxing, a nice sight for once to see complete peace in an area. The yellow squid just hated knowing there was a chance it might be interrupted.

"Hey! Have any of you seen an orange squid? Glasses and three ponytails?" Octoronia immediately demanded from the first inkling she saw, who was some fourteen year old green boy who looked like he only recently had become a fully grown inkling.

"Yeah… she saw some squid and ran after him… hey! If you have an amiibo, do you wanna play?" the friendly squid offered another painful reminder to the octoling how badly she wanted one. Sadly she had no coins at the moment, having spent her bit of savings on some important parts recently.

"Sorry, we need to find her," Maize apologized, grabbing his friend's hand before trying to hurry off, aware he had to keep focused at the right direction. The two kept their eyes wide open. They both felt a layer of uncomfortableness. Octoronia was afraid that this Fulvous squid would hurt her blindly. This was a scenario where her higher intelligence was somewhat useless, and she hated those situations the most. Maize was terrified because this was the very inkling who had bit his tentacle off, and this confrontation would perhaps have her biting off his other one if he was not careful.

"Ugh… you're not who I'm looking for!" that familiar voice rung out. Maize made sure his splatterscope and ink tank were ready on his back, but he was going to resist using his weapon if he could. He had warned Octoronia earlier to make sure they did everything they could not to splatter her.

"Fulvous!" Maize called out as they rounded a corner of the underpass. Another yellow inkling was standing before the familiar orange squid. Fulvous turned around, her eyes having those black rings that looked like a domino mask which housed nothing but pure anger. The terrified random yellow squid took the chance to immediately run away.

"Too afraid to face me alone? Figures!" Fulvous spat in anger.

"He-hey! You bit off my tentacle last time I tried that! No judging!" Maize tried to talk, though was seeing two ink tanks on Fulvous's back, which was unusual, until they saw the weapon she was carrying; a splatling gun, a very rapid firing weapon that could do a lot of damage.

"Um… how did it taste?" Octoronia nervously asked to satisfy her own curiosity. She gained the same look from Maize and Fulvous a look that said to her, 'You scare me'.

"…bland, and like raw chicken?" Fulvous unsurely answered, Maize wondered if he should feel complimented, insulted or disturbed.

"Look, I'm not the killer. I did not hurt Cyan at all," Maize stated, the orange squid girl gripping the trigger of her splatling gun and watching it begin charging, the barrel of it spinning in preparation to fire once released. The orange ink in her two ink tanks was bubbling like lava.

"I'm not listening to your lies! I saw you do it!" Fulvous repeated. Maize shook his head.

"I know you saw me do something to him, but I'm telling you! I did not kill him! I promised him I would make sure you would be fine, and I'm definitely not going to be the one to hurt you!" Agent 3 repeated what he had told her the first time before his tentacle had been bitten off. It was kind of scary to see the orange squid somehow angrier than before.

"Shut up! I'll deal with you after I splatter you both!" Fulvous released the trigger, the barrel of the splatling gun spinning faster and unleashing a flurry of orange blasts of ink. Octoronia grabbed, Maize forcing him to move fast. They both kept running, watching the orange ink covering the walls behind them and the ground as they ran by, barely missing them. However, some of the last shots hit the disguised octoling in the legs, making her trip as the orange ink stung.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Octoronia groaned. Maize grabbed his splatterscope off his back, aware how long it would take for the splatling to charge again. He squeezed the trigger, charging his charger to full before letting go. A strong burst of yellow ink erupted out, watching it blast the splatling gun and cover the handles and barrel in yellow ink, getting it onto the orange inkling's hands.

"Grah!" Fulvous grit her teeth. Maize only had done that in hopes of disarming her. Octoronia gulped as his hopes seemed too high. The burning yellow ink did not detour the orange squid whatsoever. Her grip tightened around the handles as the splatling gun was charged.

"Oh, come on!" Maize groaned. His octoling friend pulled out her slather blaster, getting in front of the yellow inkling and hitting a button on the side of it to activate its special ability, watching her shoot out a small block from her weapon that looked quite like a chunk of coral.

"Crazy coral!" Octoronia grinned, watching the coral quickly take root in the ink and begin to grow rapidly and insanely out of control, blocking the blasts of the splatling gun. Each blast knocked off more coral, but the wall of coral between them just kept growing and spreading fast. Once again, octarian technology at its finest.

"Wha?! What kind of special ability is that?" Fulvous angrily asked, continuing to fire. The crazy coral was going to end eventually. The inventor octopus made sure Maize was alright.

"You have to do something! Think fast or else we have to slather her!" Octoronia stated. Maize groaned, hating to be pressured like this. He rubbed his head, trying to think. He suddenly had an idea.

"I got it… you go distract her," he whispered before changing into his squid form and sinking into the ink. It was very hard to move with one tentacle, but he was going to make this spontaneous plan work, no matter what.

"Eek!" Octoronia gulped. The crazy coral reached the end of its duration as it all suddenly changed from its vibrant colors to a dead bland grey. Now it suddenly all fell apart with the simple blasts of the splatling gun, and it crumpled to ash. Fulvous was charging up the next set of blasts. She began firing at the disguised octoling with no hesitation. Octoronia threw herself aside, her legs still hurting from the orange ink. She got shot in the side by a burst of the orange ink, being forced over to her side in pain.

"Oh no!" Octoronia saw the splatling gun charging once more. Suddenly, Maize jumped out from the ink from Fulvous's side and tackled her, grabbing the splatling gun and forcing her to aim upward. The orange bursts of ink splashed harmlessly around the ground from being shot into the air.

"Let go!" Fulvous snapped at him, trying to bite him once more. He thankfully dodged it, making sure his other tentacle was far away from this insane squid's mouth.

"No! I'm not stopping until we can talk! Even if you splatter me a thousand times!" Maize informed her. Finally he got the advantage, forcing her splatling gun upwards. The heavy weight of it caught her off guard. She spun around, the weapon falling onto the ground and getting a small dent.

"Sasha!" Fulvous gasped. She called her splatling gun that for some reason. Maize took advantage of her from her back being exposed, and smashed both of her ink tanks. The orange ink began pouring out fast. It was when Fulvous realized that she had been defeated. Octoronia stood up, trying to clean the ink off her side. They had her trapped now in a two on one standoff.

"Now… let's talk," Maize sighed in relief, glad everything was done. He watched Fulvous drop her splatling gun before she plopped onto the ground, leaning onto one of the many walls. Maize looked over to his octarian friend. Both Special Squid Services members were aware of one thing. This was going to be one confusing and annoying conversation, one that Agent 3 himself would most likely be left to handle out of some desperate hope to find his father, the only one who could well be the real murderer of Cyan's.


	34. Confrontation

**Authors Note: Hi all! I hope you enjoy this extra long chapter, have a good day and take care!**

 **Bonus Note: Please review, I had to request help from the-irish-clover of deviantart, for extra proofreading aid. Check him out!**

Maize, Octoronia and Fulvous now were in a less stressful scenario at Urchin Underpass now that all that fighting had been gotten out of the way, and there was no remote chance the orange squid would be able to splatter either of the agents. It was time to interrogate her.

"Look, I really needed to talk to you Fulvous…" Maize insisted, though he was aware that hiding would have done no good since she had been hunting him ever since he ran away from the battle tower. He hated to imagine how many other poor blonde squids had been attacked by her randomly.

"I don't care to hear your excuses…" Fulvous said in her unwavering anger. The disguised octoling was a bit impressed by how long someone could keep their hatred and rage going, besides DJ Octavio's record breaking gaze that somehow always managed to be intimidating no matter what. Maize fixed his glasses, wanting to be a lot more friendly and relaxed around the orange squid girl, but the atmosphere showed that it was simply not an option. He could be friendly, but he had to be careful or else he might lose his last tentacle.

"She sure is pessimistic…" Octoronia commented, hating to admit that another squid could be completely negative like that, but was aware there was plenty of reasons for this. Maize went down on one knee in front of the orange squid.

"I didn't hurt your brother…" Maize repeated the same thing he had told her thousands of times. The more he said it, she felt more bothered by it.

"Again with this?! Why should I believe you?! I saw it all!" she reminded. The yellow squid recalled that testimony in court, but he never heard the whole thing from her. It now seemed like the perfect opportunity to talk freely without the pressures of prosecutors and defense attorneys breathing down their necks to try and synch the case.

"Alright… tell me what you saw then. I wanna know your perspective," Maize requested from her. She did not want to actively talk though. She would just super jump out of here if they weren't able to subdue her before she tried it.

"Please, Fulvous. We want the truth, no matter what it seems like. We need to know everything we can," Octoronia added to his plight. The disguised octoling's words seemed to finally make her relax slightly. She sighed, giving up and deciding to talk to try and get it over with quicker.

"Fine… me and my younger brother wanted to play at Saltspray Rig. Early on in the round, while I was fighting, I noticed he was gone…" Fulvous begun. Maize recalled this quite well. His memory of what happened at Saltspray Rig was still all too foggy. He wished he had used that hypnotist to relive the day back then, but reliving a murder in front of his eyes was not what he would have liked to do. He was hoping to find a way to piece his theory together entirely, and he had a good idea how to.

"And before I know it, I'm sneaking up from one of the side platforms. They were far away, so I tried to look with my charger… and that yellow jerk was on top of him! I watched him hold his hands around his neck. Cyan was kicking and flailing, and then… he just stopped moving…" Fulvous sniffled, looking ready to cry. The traumatic event was engraved in her mind. As if the emotional blow to the heart was not big enough.

"I'm telling you it wasn't me," Maize repeated. He was starting to feel like a broken record. They watched the orange inkling stand up, Octoronia aiming her weapon at her to make sure she did not try anything.

"Why should I believe you?! I saw it! Every last second! I barely could move and by the time I was able to get there, you were loooong gone, trying to blend in with your teammates! If I had gotten there, you'd probably have done the same to me!" Fulvous continued her accusations, having almost entirely forgotten the words they exchanged the last time the two of them tried to have a conversation.

"Because! …I promised Cyan I would take care of you. I had one of your friends fill me in if you ever were in trouble, and I swear the promise was made after he was dead… or at least near it," Maize claimed, only to gain a quite scared look from the orange inkling. How someone could claim to not be the murderer yet make a sick sounding promise, like there was hidden stalker levels of romance, was beyond her. Octoronia was starting to think this made even less sense, but they had her attention and she was not as angry as before. They still had to keep this angle of the conversation going smoothly.

"Y…you're sick!" Fulvous said, disturbed to imagine an inkling choking another to death while whispering promises into their ear.

"Hey, you're the one who bit off one of my tentacles!" he retorted.

"Please tone down the drama…" Octoronia requested the two, not wanting another fight to break out. She had an idea of her own to this murder and hoped it would help Agent 3 on this.

"You said you looked from afar with your charger. Do you remember what 'Maize' was wearing when you saw this happening, and what weapon he was carrying?" Agent 4 asked. She believed that the clothing and weapon the inkling had while he committed this murder might make the answer clearer. That did seem to strike the orange inkling as she began to think hard, trying to recall.

"…he was wearing an orange and yellow vest, and he didn't have his weapon or glasses either," Fulvous stated. That caught both of their attentions.

"Neither? At all?" Maize quirked.

"Yeah. You didn't have that dumb charger you always use. I thought you had just decided to wear contacts that day, or lost them during the struggle, and you tossed your weapon off the rig and let it just sink into the water," Fulvous claimed. That was the key sentence they needed. The disguised octoling and the inkling looked to each other with bright smiles. That disturbed the orange squid like she herself was about to be assaulted.

"Sorry, but whoever you saw kill Cyan was not me. Because trust me; I hate contacts," Maize grinned.

"Yeah. He's nearly as blind as a storeri without them," Octoronia backed up his claim, having witnessed first-hand how poor her friend's eyesight was without his spectacles.

"Plus I couldn't have just tossed my weapon off the rig because I was in the turf war, too. Remember? I couldn't just get rid of my weapon. I'd look too suspicious not inking any turf," Maize added. Now Fulvous was beginning to lose her anger, holding her hand to her chest, trying to think and process everything. The evidence was too contradictory to what she saw now, and this was the perfect time to continue their interrogation since she had calmed down slightly.

"Tell me who your stepdad is," Maize requested, seeing the orange squid's shocked expression.

"Huh? H-how'd you know I even had a step dad?" Fulvous asked. These two agents were beginning to come off like very professional detectives at this rate, but anyone could probably look like that if they were able to find the right evidence.

"Because, your tentacles aren't yellow at all… but you have a blue tinge. As far as I know, you and Cyan have the same mom, but your dad's not the same squid," Maize elaborated. It was all true, the orange inkling had a blue tinge to the end of her tentacles. Cyan however had completely blue tentacles with a yellow tinge instead of orange. She rubbed her neck uncomfortably. Talking about her family seemed like a tough topic.

"…my first dad wound up splitting up with mom because he was going to have to leave Inkopolis a lot for work. They both thought they would be happier without having to worry about a long distance relationship. She got engaged to someone I never got to meet, and then a few months later, Cyan was born," Fulvous exclaimed about her parents and their slightly complex path together.

"Your stepdad… his name was Arylide, right?" Maize had a straight face, looking anxious to hear the answer. Fulvous slowly nodded. It looked like Agent 3 was right with his little theory. Cyan was his half sibling. Now everyone was a bit more down knowing this revelation.

"Ye-yes… he left a while after Cyan was born. He used to be a worker at Saltspray Rig, but he quit," Fulvous stated. She got grabbed by her shoulders. The yellow inkling had a look in his eyes like he was desperate to know his location now.

"Where is he? Where's my dad?" Maize simply demanded.

"Wh-whoa! What are you going to do to him?!" Fulvous asked, Octoronia making her friend calm down and separating the two of them.

"He's the real killer! Where is he?" the disguised octoling informed the orange squid. This surprised her, and it was easy to tell why. Everything being taken in at once was all too confusing. Learning that her step father was related to Maize in a way was a lot to take in, as well as the other messy evidence that she had been arguing against thus far.

"Arylide? I don't know! I only know he was a worker at the rig and quit," Fulvous repeated. She was suddenly beginning to get overwhelmed in guilt, realizing she had taken Maize's tentacle in a fit of rage that was aimed at the wrong squid entirely. Octoronia watched Maize's feet stomp the ground as he took off, running.

"He-hey! Where are you going?!" the octoling called out, not wanting to be left alone with Fulvous.

"To find my dad!" Maize called out. Cyan's murder did not have to happen simply because of the affair his father had, but the yellow inkling wanted this to be a personal meeting. All the years he heard his parents fighting, he needed to follow his mother's words through with them. If there was a corrupt weed in the Dagenhart family tree, then it had to be removed. The truth was getting closer to the palm of his hand.

"I don't know how to get around the city alone," Octoronia muttered in realization, having zero idea about Inkopolis's layout. Fulvous was feeling awkward now.

"I'll, uhh… take you back to the plaza. I need to get Sasha fixed, anyway," Fulvous offered while picking up her splatling gun. The dent it had received from the fight was a bit discouraging. She loved this weapon a lot. Octoronia gave her a smirk.

"Get me the right tools, and I'll make sure Sasha is better than ever."

Maize ran with unlimited energy across Inkopolis, spending three hours on this travel, his splatterscope rattling against his ink tank, his heart racing and sweat beading down his face. That cloudy sky seemed to almost start clearing up as a form of cheery sign to counter what was about to occur. It had not taken long to arrive to the bay of Inkopolis. This was mostly a fishing area, where a lot of inklings were hanging out around. The yellow inkling could see a few boats, and that all too familiar rig off in the distance.

"…great," Maize took in a breath, trying to calm down his rapid heart rate. Saltspray Rig was off in the distance. It was where saltwater was processed into regular water, one of the most expensive and valuable pieces to all of Inkopolis, and it was used as a fun turf war location in retrospective, which was, in a way, a good thing. Anyone attempting to attack a place randomly would not expect a bunch of armed squids in the middle of a huge ink battle. Thankfully nothing bad had happened to this rig ever since it was built a long time ago.

"Hey!" Maize jumped off the side and landed on the docks, seeing a few boats there. This was how the workers normally crossed over to the rig to handle their job safely out of the way whenever a turf war was happening.

"Eh? Hoi there, squiddy. What can this old crab do for ya?" the friendly crab greeted, appearing to be a regular angler in his early sixties. He was wearing a pair of green overalls and black boots.

"I need to go see the manager of the Saltspray Rig. Can you give me a ride there and back?" Maize explained what he needed, doubting lying to get through would be of much use. Usually the fishermen got along perfectly fine and gave free rides to the workers. Cooperation at its finest.

"Err… squiddy, me ship ain't what she used to be for crossing the waters even that distance. I'd need something in trade for the risk," the elder crab claimed. Maize looked to the left to see a very rough tiny dingy with a beat up motor to the back of it. Just his luck, he thought. The got the one fisherman who actually did not have a good boat, but whatever worked.

"I'unno… I'll give you a thousand coins?" Maize suggested the first thing in his mind that was a small amount of coins. It seemed plenty to get this old crab to grin and agree.

"Hop in and we'll set off," the crab accepted. The yellow squid could not believe that worked. He wondered if this was how Callie and Marie felt like whenever coins entered a conversation. If that was true, then it was very satisfying. Soon enough, the inkling was in the boat, just patiently waiting for everything to get ready so they could go. Needless to say, this old crab went as slow as a turtle.

Callie was at the Squid Sister's apartment in Flounder Heights, one of the only few there beyond Captain Cuttlefish and ECO at the moment. The black inkling was trying to play with her son in his crib while her grandfather rested in the nearby rocking chair.

"You think it was right for me to just abandon the mission to see him…?" Callie asked her grandsquid while shaking a rattle, Bondi giggling and reaching his tentacles toward it. They were too short to grab the rattle, but that easily entertained the squishie. The Squid Sister felt guilty for bailing from the mission, all because it went off the rails momentarily, but she also felt uncomfortable with the robotic octoling that currently was in their living room.

"Well, squiddo, you tried to do your part in searching. You probably should be a bit ashamed of not trying to tackle it alone," Captain Cuttlefish gave his honest answer, neither Callie nor Marie really had ever been in many situations where they were alone, and he knew that affected the cousins abilities and hesitation when it came to trying to do anything alone.

"I am, gramps. I didn't want any cops trying to grab ECO, either, if I left her alone," Callie added, aware that the metallic octopus was why they could not enter Hammerhead Bridge once again. The cursed bridge seemed to strike again. Bondi had gotten ahold of the rattle and was not letting go.

"Now taking care of other agents is something to not be ashamed of. How have you and Marie been handling this little guy?" Captain Cuttlefish asked. He had been the babysitter lately for little Bondi.

"Squee!" Bondi squeaked, playing with the rattle and cooing in glee. Callie smiled, her heart warmed seeing her son happy. She felt like she owed Maize so much at the moment, but when she pondered on how her cousin thought about the squishie, it made her unsure how to answer.

"Oh, Bondi's been an absolute delight. He's so easy to make happy that I really have no trouble with him… Marie, though… I'm worried she's jealous," Callie answered. Her cousin was coming off as jealous, but in a completely different sense than she ever anticipated.

"Eh? How so?" the old squid requested, worried for the white inkling. Her grandsquid tried to think of the best way to put it.

"Well… she loves Bondi, but she acts a bit down when I spend most of my time with him. It's like she's feeling empty inside," Callie explained, aware that when she adopted Bondi, she agreed to dedicate an entire part of her life to the squishie. Marie was more than happy to help, but ever since the adoption, the white inkling had looked somewhat down whenever she saw the mother and son.

"Mhm… that's odd… I'm sure it's just the season change affecting her mood. Don't let it worry you too much," Captain Cuttlefish reassured, but made a mental note to make sure that everything was alright. Callie smiled, looking to her grandpa. She suddenly got hit in the side of the head by the rattle thrown by her now giggling son. He had lately gotten the habit of tossing his toys. She groaned, thinking this was going to be a long wait to hear if the others turned up anything in their searches.

"We're here!" the old crab of a fisherman called. Maize had spent the next half hour waiting to get to Saltspray Rig lying back in the boat tiredly he suddenly felt a bump shake the boat. The yellow squid saw a metal platform with steps leading upward to the upper part of the rig.

"Thanks! Wait here please," the yellow inkling requested, getting out of the boat and beginning to make his way up the steps, glad to have gotten the somewhat lengthy ride. He needed that rest, having burnt too much energy out on the long run. Each step made a loud metal clank beneath his feet. Once he neared the top, he noticed a pink squid in the way.

"Hey, hold on a sec!" she said, halting the young squid. She was wearing an orange and yellow vest and carrying around a box of supplies for personal writing and note taking on her sides.

"Hi! Sorry, but I need to get through," Maize apologized, aware that Saltspray Rig was taking a lot more security measures once there were no plans for turf wars there, due to the common stage rotation. They had to get work done as soon as they could while they had wide openings for the hard work.

"Ugh… what for?" she responded while pulling out a pen and paper.

"I need to speak to the manager," Maize honestly answered, hoping that maybe the truth would repay him. When he got close to her, she pushed him back before returning to writing her notes.

"Aright… I'm Fuchsia, the manager of Saltspray Rig. What can I help you with?" the pink inkling questioned, having no idea how serious the situation was, and she seemed like the type to follow the books to the exact letter for orders to follow, too.

"I need help looking for my dad… Arylide Dagenhart. He used to be a worker here," Maize explained to the manager, aware that she was most likely busy running Saltspray Rig. He thought it was quite hard to be working in one of the only water purification facilities available, and he hated to get in the way of production, but this was far more important at the moment.

"I've only been here for a week, but we do have every worker's home address documented and categorized, both for workers still around or gone. I could go peek through those," Fuchsia explained the best thing available for her to offer. They mostly had all these details in files in case there ever was an illegal situation occurring on the rig and they had to perform background checks before hiring.

"That would be great," Maize squid bowed, glad she was not as up tight as he feared. The pink inkling began to lead him away to a small building set up on the rig. They entered inside the room, which seemed like a simple monitoring system to make sure none of the machines were in trouble. There were a lot of books everywhere lying carelessly around, looking like individual manuals. He hated to imagine being forced to read them all since each one looked over a hundred pages long.

"Lessee… Arylide, you said?" Fuchsia chimed, going to a nearby filing cabinet while beginning to rummage through them.

"Yeah. Arylide Dagenhart. …well, if he didn't change his name," Maize said, thinking about it. If his dad legally changed his name now that his parents were practically divorced, he knew this would make it a bit harder to find him.

"Here's the file. Boy, it's gathered a good bit of dust…" Fuchsia muttered while opening it to view the folder's contents. There was mostly a bunch of black lines that were written out, mostly because once a worker left for any reason, they had some of their more work related details redacted from the files.

"He lives at 8413 Delfino Drive," the rig manager claimed. Maize rubbed his head sorely. Delfino Drive was mostly known for being a retirement home in a sense, but the yellow inkling doubted his father was old enough to retire yet, unless he somehow came upon a large sum of coins.

"Thanks! …err, what's the closest hospital from here?" Maize quirked while getting his splatterscope off his back, preparing it. The rig manager had to think on that for a moment.

"There's one right near the docks. Why?" fuchsia hesitantly responded, watching Maize squeeze the trigger and begin to charge his charger, and putting it to his head.

"Tell the old crab down there I said thanks for the ride," Maize let go of the trigger. A strong yellow burst of ink hit him in the head. He got splattered, exploding into a sudden mess of yellow ink, leaving a startled Fuchsia standing there in the remnant of the mess, a bit horrified to what she just saw on that part, mixed with annoyance to know she was going to have to clean up the ink.

Everything was dark for a brief moment, but then Maize suddenly appeared at a starting point. It was in an oddly lifeless room, seeing the platform beneath him. This looked like a storage closet. He groaned, making sure his splatterscope still was on his back. Both it and the ink tank were fine at the moment. He walked out of the room, now entering what he hoped to be a waiting room. This was odd, since usually spawn zones in hospitals were in more priority to be looked over in case some squid was desperately hurt and splattering themselves. This was the best option to get to a medical treatment facility.

"…this is a free health clinic, isn't it?" Maize rubbed his head, seeing the huge line around here. This building did not seem to have more than one floor, but also had a lack of staff. It all pointed to a newly built clinic. He did not care though. He just made his way outside, looking around. The sun shined bright on him, but from what Agent 3 could make out, he was at least a lot closer to Delfino Drive than he was a minute ago. The yellow squid began to walk wanting to conserve his energy.

The walk felt long, and all the while time seemed to just stand still. All Maize could think about right now was what he was going to say or do when he saw his father. Even if his dad was not at this retirement home, he was going to hunt him down if he had to. Every squid he passed by looked positively radiant. Every few minutes, the yellow squid would hear his cellphone making tones, trying to alert him to text messages and phone calls that he missed that were gradually beginning to pile up. He muted his phone, wishing to handle this mission alone. Even so, he was very grateful for all his friends' help. Maize never felt more at peace than now. The murderer status was proven wrong, but now he alone needed to confront his dad on all the questions that had piled up ever since he vanished a long time ago.

"…Delfino Drive, here I am…" Maize said to himself upon seeing the location. Delfino Drive looked like an everyday retirement location. There were a few huge buildings lined up. Maize had never been here before, but he had heard Callie and Marie talk about it in the past whenever they were joking about where to stick their grandfather in when he got too old.

"8413… he's in there," Maize gulped, feeling an unexpected wave of nervousness take him over. He sighed, beginning to walk up the steps, seeing the set of double glass doors in front of him. Upon stepping inside, he could see all types of elder squids and others in there, and the nurses and other staff helping out.

"Excuse me?" Maize said while approaching the front desk where one of the only non-busy staff appeared to be relaxing behind it.

"I'm looking for Arylide Dagenhart," he requested to know. The worker seemed a little surprised

"He's on the second floor in room 3, but this is the first time he's ever had a visitor. Are you family?" she asked. He nodded, making sure his glasses were on right.

"Yeah… thanks," Maize told her before heading off toward the steps. Each time his foot hit the ground, it felt like he was about to pass out at any moment with the overwhelming nervousness. He had no idea what to say, so like usual, the yellow squid was going to do one of the things he did best, to go in blind and rely on his luck. When he got upstairs, all the hallways were surprisingly empty with the wooden floors.

"Well… here we go" Maize took in a breath again, and he knocked on the third door.

"Come in!" that familiar voice called. The voice of his father. Maize grabbed the doorknob and made his way inside, letting it close behind him. This room had a wooden floor, with an odd carpet lining the center of the room that was blue with random patterns and colors on it. There was a small balcony, as well as a television above a fireplace. There was a bed off to the side, and the walls were completely bare, with not a single picture hung up beyond a few on the fireplace.

"Hi… dad," Maize said, feeling that awkwardness take over again. He looked at his father, whose back was turned while in a wheelchair. It looked like he had been trying to repair one of his shelves since a hammer and a few other tools lay nearby. The wheelchair spun around, and Maize saw the big yellow tentacles dangling off the sides of the wheelchair. He was wearing a pair of glasses and a red robe.

"My boy… I did not expect a visit from you… you could have brought a gift at least," Arylide greeted his son. He looked like he was not near old at all to be in a retirement home.

"It looks like a lot of things have happened to both of us since I've left," the yellow inkling's father added, seeing his son's stub of a tentacle. One of them was wheelchair bound and the other had a tentacle completely missing, so clearly a lot had happened.

"Yeah… what happened to you?" Maize requested, wanting to know why his father was stuck in the wheelchair.

"I took a bad tumble down the steps and broke my lower back. The doctors said I ain't gonna be doing anymore walking and because of that, it made working a lot harder…" Arylide claimed, rubbing his head. He seemed caught between a mix of disregard and surprise. He never anticipated a moment like this happening in front of him.

"How'd you retire so early?" Maize continued one of his dozen questions. He saw his father reach over to the fireplace, picking off one of the only few framed pictures that were on it and handing the frame over. The picture seemed to show two squids, with his father holding a giant check for coins.

"One day, I said I was sick of working, so I took a loan for two million coins. I spent them all on scratch tickets and won three tickets altogether worth four billion in coins," Arylide exclaimed. Maize somehow was not surprised by this. He could take a safe guess at whom he got his luck from in the family, but it was insane to take a big loan like that out from a bank. He wondered how he convinced them to give him the loan of coins in the first place.

"…why did you leave? You know all me and Fallow had left was you, and yet you made us live alone. Now I want the truth," Maize requested.

"I had another life to lead. Responsibility is a hard thing, and I had to make a very tough choice between you squids or…" Arylide tried to continue when his son stepped closer.

"Your other family? Right?" Maize finished it for him. That was not what his father planned to say at all. Hey seemed intent on keeping secrets and trying to lie.

"…so you knew about my affair? Guess that's not a shock. Me and your mother were far from discreet with all our shouting back then," Arylide chuckled while rolling around in his wheelchair to the side, opening the blinds to one of the small windows to let more sunlight in.

"Of course. You ran mom off because of it," Maize repeated what he saw in that memory. His father shook his head in disagreement.

"I didn't run mom off because of the affair. She just left because she was sick of it all. When I first met Apricot her entire family was in debt, because her old man had tried to start a company to 'help the world', by helping other squids medically," Arylide began explaining the event when they met. Maize just listened, but was feeling a fuse start to light a fire in his heart as he listened.

"So I made a plan to help pay off their debt. After a while, me and your mom were married, and I had become a Dagenhart. She always kept asking me what my decision for tradition was… even though I told her over and over again," Arylide added. It was irritating to recall it, how he worked so hard to pay off that debt, but he appeared ungrateful.

"You said you wanted to help build the world, right?" Maize saw his father nod, recalling that as his decision for the tradition. Or so what he claimed.

"Yeah… but so what? I never cared about this Dagenhart tradition. Who does? It seems to have just gotten squids either killed trying to do anything, or in such a debt that it was not much different," Arylide described his view on the Dagenhart tradition. This seemed to be beginning to get under the yellow inkling's skin.

"You didn't care. So you didn't even want a part in this family, did you?! You did not just have one affair, but also had a squishie with another woman while you were married," Maize declared. All those times he heard his parents fighting, all because of his mother believing in the tradition, and after Cyan, his dead half-brother, he still did not have any clue about what was going on with his father.

"…I won't deny, I had another squishie. An old friend of mine and I met up shortly after I married your mom. We tried to keep it friendly, but sometimes your heart goes to another," his older squid said.

"You never loved mom! You never loved me or Fallow. You just did it because you wanted something out of repaying a debt. Is that what you're telling me?!" Maize fumed. His father gained a smirk.

"I adopted her, because your mom wanted to. You should be thankful, squiddo. If I did not tolerate your mom, you would not be here today," Arylide said in the condescending tone. Maize, struck critically, shoved him back, his wheelchair sliding into the wall.

"I should be thankful… for what? Your negligence? We suffered because you chased mom off! You abused her, and when she was gone you took it out on Cyan! You murdered him… and because of that, you made me, Fallow, and even his sister Fulvous suffer!" Maize declared what he had long since figured out. He was now knowing how Fulvous felt, an undying rage for something that was caused a huge misunderstanding, at the hands of another crazy madman that had no control of his anger.

"Heh… you're the one who put ya fingers on his throat. Sure, I killed him. So what? No one'll believe it because there's no evidence, and you gladly helped all because you saw your dear old man in a tough spot, and 'promised you would do anything to help'," Arylide reminded his son of the exact words he had heard. Maize's memory began to come back quite strongly. Things seemed to go blank for a minute as everything began to quickly come back to him.

That one blank moment, Maize found himself in a completely different area. It almost felt like he was back under the hypnotization he had received. He looked younger again, but only fifteen at most. He recognized it all too well. It was the plaza battle tower, and here he was with a random group of squids. He could see Cyan alongside his team. Fulvous was on the other team with other random squids.

"You're silly, Maize, y'know…" a soft voice said, Maize looking to his left. Cyan had spoken up. This memory was odd to relive, but he decided to go with it, just hoping it would not go off the rails.

"Uhh… what makes me silly?" Maize responded while they were climbing onto the platforms so they could prepare for a turf war right at Saltspray Rig. Cyan was carrying a krak-on roller on his side.

"You've just made five promises in a row in less than an hour. How do you do that without a second thought?" Cyan asked, another one of the many who were curious why Maize kept making so many promises. The yellow squid could not recall one of any of these promises, but he presumed he had gotten them fulfilled.

"Because… I know they can make someone happy. Mom wanted to use her promises to help change the world for the family tradition. I'd like to do the same," Maize answered truthfully. He was doing his best to recreate the memory, but it was still eerier He was talking to his own thoughts.

"Hm… I have something like that. I want to help cheer up the world with my painting!" Cyan declared with a smile. Maize remembered that all too well. Cyan always loved the bright vibrant colors of ink and they always made him and his sibling happy, so he wanted to use them to cheer up others. Maize however found something odd in this memory. There was no recalling of any talk about Fallow, which was odd to him. His adoptive sister got a horrific injury because of Cyan, yet neither of them felt the extensive hate. The yellow squid was not recalling ever bringing up talk about Fallow.

The memory was quickly changed. Maize found himself walking along Saltspray Rig. He was doing the usual, covering a lot of it with ink, though during his run, he came across a horrific sight that was found in his mind quite well. He saw his father who stood by Cyan, holding the tri-slosher.

"D-dad? What happened? Why isn't Cyan moving?!" Maize requested, seeing his father panting and trying to calm down. He went on one knee before his son, putting on a sympathetic face.

"Son… he hurt Fallow, and I saw him and got angry. But right now, I need your help. You have to put your hands all over his neck, alright? I need to try and act casual," Arylide requested. Hs son shook his head, appearing to be upset. For being fifteen years of age, he was not the toughest squid at that age. His father shook him quite roughly.

"Look at me, Maize! If they arrest me, I'll be gone forever, just like your mom! You don't want that, right?" Arylide asked. His son slowly nodded at the memory of his mother.

"Good. Now please do this."

"…I promise, I'll make sure you're safe dad," Maize sniffled. His dad patted his shoulder before running on ahead, carrying the roller in his hand. For some reason he was attached to it. Maize looked down at Cyan. The blue squid's lifeless face showed his wide open eyes. He put his splatterscope on his back and went on his knees at the head of the blue inkling, before closing his eyelids.

"…I'm sorry… I know you didn't mean to hurt Fallow. I promise to make sure your sister is alright as often as I can," Maize said to Cyan before he began to get his hands all over the squid's throat, in a desperate attempt to keep his dad out of jail, covering his fingerprints up with his own. Upon recalling this memory, Maize felt sick. He could never believe what he did at that age, and his father still abandoned him and his sister.

"You used me…" Maize growled as he snapped out of the memory, glaring at his father in the wheelchair. The yellow squid began to walk to another part of the room toward the closet.

"So what if I did? You still did it for me, and I had left you a long time ago. You sure know great timing, though. You saved my hide," Arylide exclaimed. Maize's involvement with the murder was a set up out of a horrible coincidence of a meeting, that and his wish to make sure his dad would be able to come home one day.

"And motive. In comparison, of course I could have killed Cyan in anger… but you're in the same boat. He hurt Fallow and she had to get another surgery, right?" Arylide reminded. Maize grit his teeth. There was conflicting evidence, and Maize's theory made complete sense, but he had no way to seal it. Fulvous would look like a liar if she changed her testimony so dramatically different.

"I've already spent a year in jail, and spent a lot longer thinking I was the real killer because of you," Maize said, hating to have taken the blame for this horrible squid he called a dad. He was calming down while opening a closet door that was full of junk from front to back. He began to toss things aside carelessly.

"Hey! Knock it off! It's hard for me to clean up, you know!" Arylide demanded. He had no desire to try and hurt his son if it meant peeling himself out of his wheelchair, but he appeared to get more distressed as his closet was cleaned out.

"Motive doesn't matter when the right evidence is around," Maize retorted, lying in the back of the closet. Covered in years of dust was that all too familiar krak-on roller. He presumed his dad had kept the weapon belonging to Cyan always close by, because he doubted he could get away with simply dumping it in some remote location. Maize heard a creaking on the floor when he turned around. Arylide had gotten a hold of the hammer and swung at him, the yellow squid dodged it grabbing his hand.

"Who do you think you are?! I wasted part of my life raising you!" Arylide roared. Maize smacked the hammer out of his father's hand, grabbing his wheelchair and flipping it upwards. He watched his dad fall backwards out of his chair and onto the ground.

"I'm Maize, Agent 3 of the Special Squid Services," Maize simply answered while standing over his father. After all this time, the puzzle and true killer were solved and revealed. His dad just looked up blankly at him.

"Heh… guess you've gotten a lot stronger than you were as a squirt," Arylide chuckled. His son shook his head.

"No… I've always been weak, but if I had not been such a coward, I'd have never suffered like I did… none of us would have," Maize stated while pulling out his cellphone, beginning to dial the number for the authorities. His dad seemed far from done when it came to talking though.

"Wa-wait! Look at what the Dagenhart tradition's done! You only made that promise to me because you made it your decision to the tradition. You could have simply broke it. If you don't call the police, I'll tell you where Apricot is," Arylide tried to plea to Maize, gaining an angry glare from him. He missed his mother a lot and wanted to see her desperately, but he kept cool, continuing to dial the cops.

"No need. I'll find mom again, one day. I made that promise and kept it to try and keep our family safe. You're no longer a Dagenhart… just a murderer and a brain-dead idiot. I've saved your hide, 'dad'… but now, I'm letting the police handle your hide," those last words seemed to be all that needed to be said before silence began to set in. Arylide was realizing there was no way out. His riches in coins were not going to get Maize to stop. Agent 3 was finally able to take a breath in relief, now that he knew things could calm down, and he could clear his own name, but he could not have done it remotely if he had not gotten all the help from his great friends. It made him smile, hoping there could be nothing but good times, and no more twisted secrets about his life. The darkest ones had been brought out and illuminated after all these years.


	35. Calm

It had been two hours since Maize had finished his encounter with his dad. It was a stressful time explaining it to the authorities, but they had it handled and hopefully he would not need to see his father again during the retrial. The yellow inkling had the biggest smile on his face while he was walking back home. The sun was setting and he was ready have a nice night's rest. He felt like the entire world had been lifted off his shoulders in seconds.

"Oh! I should let the others know the good news," Maize grinned while pulling out his cellphone, noticing the texts and calls he missed. The most recent call attempt was made from Octoronia, yet he did not recall sharing his phone number with either of the octolings. He recalled her and waited for an answer.

"Hello?" Octoronia's voice chimed.

"Hey! Octoronia, sorry about missing your calls. The heat of the moment, y'know?" Maize chuckled. She was very happy to hear her friend was back to his cheery self.

"It's okay… I've been spending the last few hours with Fulvous at the plaza. How did it go? Did you find your dad?" Octoronia was sitting inside the weapons shop Ammo Knights at Inkopolis Plaza. The shop owner, Sheldon, was a very nice person and allowed them to use his tools to fix the small dent in the splatling gun.

"Yeah… just that I don't see him as a dad anymore. He's going to jail now. I'm near the plaza, so how about I come meet up with you?" Maize suggested, trying to ignore the topic of his father at the moment. He wanted to enjoy the great peace of mind while he had it.

"Sure! …I have no idea where I'm going around in Inkopolis," Octoronia confessed, sounding nervous to be walking these streets alone. Even if there weren't that many scary things in Inkopolis, she did not feel safe to travel through unknown locations. The yellow squid had a good idea in mind, since he especially wanted to see Fulvous.

"Be there in a minute," Maize hung up, hurrying along. His splatterscope dangled off his back with his ink tank once more as he ran. He never felt dragged down by either of them, since he was so used to carrying both items. It was weird when he did not have them on his body.

At the Inkopolis Plaza weapons shop, both Octoronia and Fulvous sat and waited. Ever since the orange squid was talked to by the agents about who the true killer was, she was stuck in a sea of guilt for what she had done. They heard the front door bell for the shop ring as the door opened.

"Hey! Look who's here!" a voice chimed out. Fulvous looked over to see the shop owner coming from the back room. He was wearing a helmet on his head with a pair of goggles, and was dressed in a khaki scout uniform with a red scarf around his neck. He was Sheldon the horseshoe crab, a huge military fanatic. Maize used to come to the Ammo Knights store all the time when he was new to turf wars. Trying to become fresher and viewing every new weapon was an exciting experience.

"Hey, Sheldon. Sorry, I'm not here to shop. I'm just here to talk to my friends," Maize apologized. Sheldon looked disappointed. Business had been a bit slow lately. Despite his efforts at making new weapons, they did not seem to meet any squids' standards. The horseshoe crab went back to counting inventory in the back room.

"…wait a minute. You really think of me as a friend?" Fulvous only could say. Agent 3 stood in front of her with a wide smile. He pointed a finger at the stub from the tentacle that she had bitten off.

"It wasn't your fault, Fulvous! I know what it's like to let anger build up for a long time. In hindsight, I did kind of deserve the biting… but still, I'll gladly consider it a fair sacrifice in pursuit of the truth," Maize exclaimed. He saw this tentacle stub now as just another reminder of part of the past being left behind. However he sure would have loved to keep both of his tentacles. He felt sorry for whoever found that amputated tentacle out there randomly, he knew it was going to shock some squid.

"…so Arylide really did it?" Fulvous questioned.

"Yeah. I've dealt with him for you, and he's gonna serve one long period of jail time," Maize nodded, positive that Arylide was facing a long jail sentence for the murder. The large sum of coins he had won from the scratch tickets were also going to just go to some legal fees that were left unattended by him, and they were quite a large sum of cash. The orange squid buried her face in her hands, sniffling.

"He-hey! Why are you crying?" Octoronia asked rubbing a hand on the orange inkling's back. Her splatling gun was repaired and now the real murderer was caught. This should be a joyous thing, but Maize could guess why she was upset.

"I-I did all th-this! Cyan wouldn't have wanted this… but I did it. I just went nuts and attacked every ye-yellow squid with glasses. I bit someone's limb off with no care! And now look at me… I feel like a monster… yet I-I'm still being treated nice for it. I don't de-deserve any of this!" Fulvous sobbed, her guilt succeeding at aching her heart. Agent 4 looked at Agent 3. Maize tapped his chest, aware that simply reassuring that everything was fine was not going to cheer her up, if his previous statement had not. He had another idea in mind.

"You really feel that bad for it? Look, I have an idea that might make things better," Maize started, gaining her attention. Her tear filled eyes looked up at him like he was her hero. He partially was just right now, but that was mostly for finding out the true killer and being so brave in the face of danger.

"Wh-what?" she sniffed, wiping her eyes.

"You can join the Special Squid Services," Maize held out his hand in offer to her, giving her the opportunity to become an agent for the Special Squid Services. Fulvous had heard of this group before the website had become quite popular, and there had been nothing but positive things said all the time.

"Re-really? …but why?" Fulvous responded in confusion. She felt like she deserved to be behind bars herself for her rage-induced assaults.

"The Special Squid Services is out to help everyone they can," Octoronia explained, letting Agent 3 take over from there.

"Cyan wanted to help the world. He wanted to cheer the world up with his painting. If you really feel bad for what you did, then turn it around and help others in need. For all I know, Cyan would want this from you," Maize added his hand still extended toward her Fulvous missed cyan a lot and remembered how much fun he had painting she grabbed the yellow squids hand before standing up

"…I'll do it! I'll turn these years of anger around to nothing but making others happy!" Fulvous happily agreed to become Agent 7. Maize and Octoronia had bright smiles, and before they knew it, she had grabbed her splatling gun and approached Maize, holding it to him. He confusedly held his hands out, and she carelessly dropped it into his arms. He fell straight to the ground with the heavy-weight gun.

"I want you to have Sasha… as thanks from not just me, but from Cyan, too," Fulvous insisted.

"I just fixed her, too…" Octoronia sighed, wishing she had received something for a gift, but was aware that Maize had done a lot of the work for this personal mission.

"Oof! …wow, s-she's heavy… you're sure I can have her?" Maize questioned if it was alright to have her splatling gun. At times like this, he wished he was muscular. Normally they weren't that heavy, but sadly this was a special brand model of splatling gun, so it had a bit more complex tech inside of it.

"Yes! Don't worry, her sister Natascha will serve me just as well as Sasha did," Fulvous happily responded. Before the two knew it, Agent 7 was out of the store and heading off to get back home. She seemed all too eager to do some missions as an Agent.

"Well… this has been a very long day… and I'm ready to pass out," Octoronia stated, feeling drained. Maize presumed all of the agents were equally tired.

"I know how you feel… Let's head to the Squid Sister's place. I'm sure everyone'll be there," Maize recommended they go regroup with the others and give them an update on the results of their searches, aware that if Marie Fallow Callie or ECO could not find anything, they would certainly have returned to Flounder Heights, especially if they had no contact with the yellow squid himself for any information.

"Yeah, let's go! …I'll help you carry her," Octoronia groaned, grabbing the other end of the splatling gun and beginning to help Maize out of the store. She wondered how he was going to get this weapon home by himself. The two were going to head for the Squid Sisters apartment. Maize had not forgotten at all about this supposed crush ECO had gained for him, and he had not the faintest idea how to go about handling it. He was going to try and brush it off tonight and let her work through it. The yellow squid was certainly not going to add any more stress or drama to today than he already had.

Things were a little more peaceful in the Squid Sisters' apartment at the moment. The rest of the agents were there. Callie had accidentally fallen asleep on the couch right next to her grandfather. Fallow was lying on her back in the floor, fading in and out of sleep. ECO was working on the inside of her arm, with it open wide and exposing the wires inside.

"If you're still worried about Maize, don't be," ECO heard looking over her shoulder, seeing Marie standing there and still having some energy. She was feeding Bondi a bottle of formula, not wanting to wake up his mother.

"…I appreciate your concern for me," ECO responded. The Squid Sister rolled her eyes. The robotic octoling did not hide that worry well at all since her emotion cortex was constantly showing a blue light in worry.

"I'm concerned for everyone lately. Everything's going so crazy…" Marie admitted. She had been growing only more and more concerned for her dear friends and family. Each day that passed and each mission seemed to be drastically different, though the white squid did not ever expect to be friends with an octoling, let alone a robotic one.

"Squee…" Bondi tiredly yawned once he finished his bottle. Marie gained a smile, seeing the sleepy squishie.

"What's bothering you?" ECO requested, noticing that odd look in the white inkling's eyes. It looked like a mix of joy and sadness. Marie looked at Agent 5 confusedly, trying to not let it bother her while she cradled Bondi in her arms.

"I dunno. I guess ever since Callie adopted Bondi, things kind of are being put in perspective for me…" Marie claimed as she walked away to go put the squishie in his crib to rest. She could not be any happier to be the aunt to the adopted squid, but she couldn't deny the odd feelings she had lately. Her thought process however was broken by a knocking at the door.

"Let's hope things went well…" ECO tried to remain calm as she opened the door, seeing Maize and Octoronia standing there, the splatling gun right nearby.

"Hey!" Maize happily greeted the metallic octoling. This greeting call seemed to wake up all the other agents.

"Maize! Sis! I'm glad you're both alright," ECO sighed in relief to see her sibling safe and everyone happy once more, wondering what had occurred. She tried to keep the lights toned down somewhat, though she was confused by the heavy weaponry they were carrying.

"Bro! How did it go?" Fallow got up from the floor tiredly. Callie got off the couch, rubbing her eyes. Her grandpa however stayed slumbering. The black squid was happy to see their friend again as she approached her cousin.

"I'd like to say well, but I've never been in more of a chaotic scene in my life. Good news is… I'm about clear of all charges," Maize gave a thumbs up. He heard a group cheer, but that woke the squishie from his sleep. Marie handed Bondi back to his mother. She had already put him to sleep once tonight.

"We need to do something to celebrate!" Callie exclaimed, though it seemed like everyone was far too drained to even remotely consider going out anywhere or doing a turf war for fun. Maize was glad no one pressed him more about the matter.

"Callie, I think going to bed early would be a good celebration," Marie commented, much to the disappointment of her cousin.

"Today's been a long day… and I owe you all a lot. Sorry for making you worry and think I was the criminal there," Maize apologized, trying his best to avoid the million coin debt he now had to the white inkling. Even so, he admitted that it was worth it. That hypnotist session really worked wonders.

"I'd like to say it's fine, but it really isn't. That was a very horrifying lie," ECO claimed with that purple light on her chest flickering. Maize chuckled, unsure how to take that. Octoronia got worried, approaching her mechanical sister.

"Let's head home. It was nice meeting you all," Agent 4 claimed, very happy to have met all of the agents, but just wishing the circumstances could have been a lot better. The feeling was mutual.

"Same to you. Just never thought I'd be friends with an octoling," Marie admitted, aware that not all octolings were evil. It was just a bad blooded history between squids and octopi. That more so prevented any contact between them. It was nice to see that there were those who had minimal care for the past war. They watched Agents 4 and 5 take their leave.

"See you both later," Maize bid them farewell, even if ECO had that eerie crush on him. He heard the same be bid to him from the octolings.

"I should probably get home if I could. Maybe if it were more fun, I'd help carry your gun," Fallow said in her usual rhyme. Maize gave an unamused glare.

"Gee, thanks sis… love ya too," Maize responded. His sister hugged him before she left the Squid Sisters' apartment. Maize looked at the Squid Sisters. Things seemed to be back to normal now, and with a new agent to the Special Squid Service to help out others in need. Today seemed to be at least positive toward the end.

"You wanna spend the night? That splatling gun looks heavy," Marie extended an offer to their dear friend to crash here once again, Captain Cuttlefish still slumbering away on the couch. Callie was rocking Bondi in her arms, trying to sooth him back to sleep. The squishie was upset from being awoken from his sleep once already.

"Thanks for the offer, but I need to go home. I got a few things to fix," Maize kindly turned down the offer, though sounded annoyed to head home. He had to repair his broken doorknob to the front door, and clean up any traces of his blood that still remained, and the rest of the mess after treating his own stub of a tentacle.

"Alright. Well, you take care," Callie bid Agent 3 goodnight, Maize giving a smirk. The Squid Sisters were glad to have that happy blonde squid they knew back. They watched him pick up the splatling gun with both arms, groaning before he made his way out of their apartment.

Maize was at the elevator when he put down the splatling gun, panting.

"Ugh… jeez, my back's gonna get thrown out at this rate," he coughed, regretting not being stronger, but he preferred chargers for a reason. He was not one to go running around with the heavy weaponry on the front lines. However lately it sure felt like he was thrown to the front lines with just his splatterscope. Challenge was challenge, but it was starting to get a little out of hand.

"Maize! Wait a second!" he heard, looking back to see Callie coming to him. He wondered if something was wrong.

"What's up, Callie?" Agent 3 greeted the Squid Sister, hoping another surprise mission had not forced its way into the agent's attention.

"I need to talk to you a bit… it's about Marie," Agent 1 started. Maize was concerned already, but she seemed completely fine in there as far as he could tell. Anyhow the yellow inkling was not very good at telling when others were lying.

"Does she have a mission for us?" Maize asked. Callie couldn't help but slightly laugh at that response.

"You think everything is a mission lately. No, I want you to keep an eye on her if you can and check up on her. She's acting strange lately," Callie claimed. She was actually very worried for her cousin. Agent 3 could tell how upset it was making Callie, to the point where she was rubbing her own tentacles for comfort.

"How strange? And why me? Can't you or the cap'n take care of her? …because this sounds like a family matter," Maize admitted. He did not like sticking his nose into other families' affairs, but if his best friends needed his help, he was not one to shy away from the problem then.

"I'm afraid I might be the reason why she's acting strange. I would prefer to not talk to gramps about it. Ever since I've adopted Bondi, Marie's been acting more down than ever. Whenever she sees me with him, I'm worried she's jealous," Callie explained what she thought it was. That made Agent 3 quirk an eyebrow. Marie and jealous were two words that did not go together often. Usually others were jealous of her.

"Jealous? …for you having a squishie?" he asked, wanting to know if he was following along well.

"No. I think just jealous that I'm spending most of my time at home with Bondi. Can you please make sure she's alright, if you can? I don't think I'd be able to sleep well knowing I'm upsetting her so much…" Callie repeated her request. Maize really had trouble believing Marie would be jealous of her cousin spending time with her son. The Squid Sisters sure seemed just as active in media as before and they seemed synced up perfectly normal. But he nodded.

"Alright. I'll promise to keep an eye out for her, don't worry," Maize agreed. Callie sighed in relief, hugging her friend.

"Thank you so much. You have a good night," the black squid bid her friend goodnight.

"Same to you," Maize said, watching her return to her apartment. The yellow squid had a bad feeling that something was a lot more wrong than he imagined. He tried not to let it bother him, wanting to blame the season changing from spring to summer on Marie's mood change.

"Ugh… I still gotta lug you around, huh Sasha…" Maize muttered down to the weapon while hitting the button for the elevator. He picked up the splatling gun once the elevator reached his floor, and then entered. He hit a button to go back to the ground floor. He wanted to head home, clean and repair everything and then get a good night rest. Today had been physically and emotionally exhausting, and now he had to worry about his friend as well.


	36. Secrets

It had been a week since Maize had been cleared of the murder and was able to prove his father guilty. The yellow inkling was off trying to handle his day like normal, doing missions and relaxing like he was rewarded it. At another part of Inkopolis, just a bit south of the plaza, Agent 2 was walking along in a new disguise, consisting of a green vest, and a white coat which had green polka dots on it, along with a hat with a white medical mask over her nose and mouth. It was a mix of her last disguise and her very old one. Sometimes she found it better to combine outfits to make them even fresher, but right now she could care less about her looks.

"I can't believe I paid that much…" Marie muttered. She had two small red files and one big tan colored one, all under her arm. It was slightly drizzling today, but the rain was not near hard enough to require an umbrella. The Squid Sister pulled out her wallet from her pocket, making sure she was not going to drop the files, pulling out one of her coin cards from the wallet.

"…forty grand, just for a bribe," Marie muttered. Forty thousand coins was not much, since she had spent millions on hypnotism for her own enjoyment, but for some reason this particular payment was very annoying to her. This time she had spent the morning in turf wars at the battle tower trying to unwind, but about ten of them later, she had not gotten any more relaxed before she went off to her scheduled appointment. As she passed by the plaza, she saw the café and got a small smirk.

"Maybe some sweets will help my mood," she thought, taking off the medical mask from her face and pocketing it. The plaza looked lively like usual today, except now there was a new little area set up outside a new shop.

"More amiibo stuff?" the Squid Sister tilted her head. She loved the idea behind the amiibo line of toys and how anyone could play with miniature versions of themselves with others. However Marie could not enjoy it herself, just from imagining how a few people could make mini versions of her and Callie just with simple pictures found online. She did her best to keep those thoughts in the back of her mind, just continuing into the café.

"Welcome!" Marie heard, seeing the worker behind the counter. The café had a few other inklings in it, but otherwise it was more empty than usual. She went over and took a seat by the big glass window, seeing a menu on the table. She had been here before and saw the menu each visit. She only gave it a quick glance before the jellyfish worker came over to her.

"What can I get you?" the bubbly worker requested, holding a pen and paper. Marie rested the folders on the table, planning to look over the three of them during her rest here.

"Two slices of one of your special cakes, and a small cup of coffee," Marie ordered while fixing her hat to make sure her disguise was not compromised. It probably would make this café day if one of the idols popped in for a surprise visit and drew in a bunch of customers.

"Alright, be back in a minute!" the worker went to go fill her order. Once she was gone, the white squid brushed aside her two red files and opened the tan folder, revealing rather complex medical text like a common visit to a doctor's office. At the bottom of the mess of text, there was a highlighted part that was all she really cared for.

"Marie Cuttlefish has been approved to undergo the procedure within a week's time. Once a donor out of the candidates has been selected by her and a sample is gathered, we will proceed as normal. However, if more time is required, then we can postpone for up to 30 days before we cancel."

Marie huffed before closing the file again, before she saw a random ink blotch hit the glass window. She quirked an eyebrow.

"Yellow ink… and it seems fired from a charger… great," Marie sighed. It was easy to tell what kind of weapon fired each ink usually by the trails left or the impact they made, and it was easy to tell this was a charger's doing. The white inkling got up from her chair and stepped outside, seeing a random red inkling with his back turned to her. He was wielding a tri-slosher, a cleaning tool that had been turned into a big turf covering weapon.

"Why can't you just make it easy and just hand it over?" that familiar voice rung out. Marie could see Maize standing there, his splatterscope aimed at the red squid. Agent 3 took note of Agent 2 and seemed happy to see her.

"You can make it easier by just letting me go, too!" the red squid retorted, about to toss a wave of ink from his tri-slosher. Marie decided it was time to intervene. When the red inkling pulled back, she grabbed one of his wrists, catching him off guard before she kicked his feet out from under him, slamming him onto the ground face first and knocking him unconscious instantly.

"Whoa…" Maize said in awe at what he just saw, seeing the white squid kick the bucket weapon away, though the yellow inkling quickly grabbed it and picked it up.

"It's just basic hand to hand combat," Marie responded, having learnt a few techniques from her grandfather. Now that the situation was under control, Maize put his splatterscope on his back.

"So what happened?" she requested to know what had been going on that Maize chased after the red inkling. Maize adjusted his glasses with his usual bright smile.

"Oh! He stole this tri-slosher from another squid during a turf war I was in. Not really a mission request, but y'know, it's still not right," Maize shrugged. He had done this mostly out of the thrill of the moment, but he was glad to have done it anyway. Helping out another squid felt great in every situation.

"Ohhh. The officials'll have fun with him," Marie grinned, her sharp teeth showing. The yellow squid could see a few other inklings coming out of the battle tower. The Squid Sister swiftly hid behind one of the pillars of the café entrance, not wanting a crowd's attention on her right now.

"Thank you!" a young voice chimed from a little squid boy. Maize handed the tri-slosher back to its rightful owner, receiving quite the bright hug in return.

"Anytime. You just need to keep better eyes out. I'll let you and your friends handle it from here," Maize told them, letting the young group of three inklings that barely looked older than fourteen take over, having already called the cops to here in case he had failed to catch the red squid. Marie had returned to her table and taken her seat back. After only a few seconds, she saw Maize enter the café.

"Never a dull moment," the white inkling commented, seeing her dear friend nod.

"I'll say. The calm comes after the storm, right?" he chuckled, quoting Captain Cuttlefish to the exact letter. They saw a waiter come over, carrying a tray that had the Squid Sister's cake slices on it and her cup of coffee in the other hand. She rested them on the table.

"Ohh! Marshmallow stuffed chocolate cake," Maize gawked, seeing her pay for the food. The white haired inkling, aware that he probably wanted some, rested the plate on the middle of the table with one slice facing each of them.

"You can have one," Marie said. She wanted to eat them both for herself, but she did not want to be rude to her friend. She was able to just buy another slice if she really wanted it. She watched him begin inhaling the entire slice and scarfing it down. It was kind of shocking how much he loved this type of cake. By the time Marie had gotten two bites of her own slice, he was halfway done.

"And I thought Callie ate fast…" she couldn't help but comment. She was beginning to notice the rain outside starting to pick up in strength. It looked like a real downpour was soon going to break out. Agent 3 suddenly realized how impolite he was being.

"Oh, sorry… I haven't eaten since this morning… or at all, yesterday," Maize apologized. He had been missing a lot of his normal eating schedules for various reasons. At these times, Marie was glad she and Callie had high metabolisms. They never really had to worry about their weight that much.

"What're those?" the yellow squid asked, noticing the files resting on the desk. Marie tried to act casual about them, though he could tell it was something she did not want him to know at all. It made him worry since Callie had requested him to make sure her cousin was alright and to keep an eye on her if he could.

"Just results from a check-up…" Marie blankly answered.

"Are you alright?" Maize did not hesitate to ask. She swore his bright mood lately had been starting to rub off on everyone around the yellow squid. It was harder than ever lately to break that cheery mood.

"Just an ear infection. It's nothing to worry about," she reassured. The yellow squid thought it was probably time to inquire further. He did not want to leave the task up to Callie if he could help it, aware of how worried she was that Marie was acting weird and thinking it was all her fault.

"You've been acting so… weird lately, Marie. It's like you're depressed," Maize claimed, trying a direct approach in this conversation. If she did not ever answer, then he simply would go handle more missions today. If she wanted his help, then she would ask for it. After all Maize, hated to stick his nose into a family problem unless he had no choice.

"I'm not depressed, Maize. I'm just distracted" Marie retorted in her own defense as the two were now both finished with their slices of the cake. The yellow squid sighed, aware that this was not going to be easy. He watched her pick up her coffee cup and drink the last of it. He stood up, bumping into the table and knocking the folders off.

"Oh jeez! Sorry," the yellow inkling frantically apologized, grabbing the folders for her and offering them to her. She was glad he did not immediately open them to try and read as much as he could. She smiled, taking them, and then she looked at her phone, seeing the time.

"I have to go handle something. You take care, Maize," Marie stated, telling her friend goodbye before leaving the café. After she left, the yellow squid had a grin, reaching back down beside the table. One of the papers from one of the folders had randomly fallen out. He was glad she did not take notice, and once again his luck had paid off. He was stunned at what he then saw.

"No way!" Maize gulped. The piece of paper showed medical information, but beside it was a picture of an all too familiar inkling in the photo. The squid had light pink tentacles and was wearing a pair of headphones around his neck. The pink squid's name was labelled Amaranth. The yellow inkling recognized the squid, the very one he met a while back who once worked for Cornell. He had promised that person everything would be fine once Cornell was gone. It was a shock, but he was more concerned why Marie was carrying a file with their information in it. He decided it was time to stick his nose in the matter now, mostly out of concern and wanting his friend's wellbeing to be alright.


	37. Followed

Marie was back on her stroll, feeling a lot calmer now that she had gotten some lunch and coffee. Beating up that red squid who had attempted to steal that tri-slosher felt nice as well. She was heading for a nearby apartment complex not, caring remotely for the heavy rain. She had stashed the three files away in the bag on her side, though the white inkling tried to recall the correct apartment number, seeing the five floor building before her.

"Let's see… Apartment D4 if I remember right," Marie muttered. She hated going to high places, having never been that big of a fan of heights, but she could handle them quite well if she paid little attention to it. She carefully made her way up the steps. However each floor she passed gave her a growing feeling of nervousness, not just from the fear for heights. The white squid was coming here with a big reason. Unbeknown to her though, she was being followed by someone. Once Marie finally reached the fourth floor, she began to head down the hall, looking over all the doors until she found D4.

"Ohh… how can I be so excited nervous and afraid at the same time?" Marie asked herself. She tried to calm herself down, not wanting to seem like an insane person randomly going door to door. She knocked on the door a few times and waited patiently. However that same funny feeling she was being watched set off her nerves. Her tentacles were feeling odd, so she looked back the way she came.

"…I'm getting paranoid…" Marie muttered. Maize was hiding in the stairwell. He was horrible at stealth tactics, but this was one of the times he had to do it. He did owe the white squid a lot after all.

"Hello?" the door suddenly opened. The Squid Sister smiled, seeing the very squid she saw from her files. Amaranth was wearing a sleeveless white shirt that had black stars on it in random patterns. His arm still showed that huge scar running across it that caught her off guard, but she kept up a brave face.

"H-hi, I'm Mari… Mario. I came to talk to you about your part in the donor program," Marie sighed, introducing herself under the same disguise alias that she had unfortunately gotten used to.

"Oh! Come inside, I guess…" Amaranth awkwardly stepped aside, opening the door wide. The Squid Sister stepped inside, aware of the awkward atmosphere. The donor program usually was kept very anonymous between donor and receiver. That was one of the things Marie gained from her bribe. She wanted to check out the donors more personally before she decided who to accept to donate. Maize groaned, seeing them go inside and the door close. He wondered what to do to keep an eye on her. He looked over to the nearby fire escape he began to carefully make his way across it to try and find a window to spy through.

"Sorry for the mess, Mario. I had a lot to do to prepare for a demonstration tomorrow," Amaranth apologized. Marie was surprised by the state of this apartment that it was an absolute confusion. The living room had a long couch in it, but the television looked busted. To the right, there was a very long table that was full of all kinds of beakers and chemistry devices. Underneath it were a lot of odd items in variously sized jars. Some were solid, some were liquid, and some were just insects.

"Demonstration? Are you an inventor?" Marie quirked curiously, though honestly his apartment gave a mad scientist vibe to it.

"No… just a mere contributor to a brighter tomorrow," Amaranth said, shaking his head. He seemed quite positive for someone with his huge scar. Beforehand, he had nothing but constant pain that would be simply unbearable, but he seemed to have a grasp on it now.

"I know that donors are meant to remain anonymous, and you're just supposed to pick one of us from files… so you must be pretty paranoid if you went out of your way to come find me," Amaranth guessed. Marie was surprised by his accusation. She gathered herself mentally for a moment, sighing.

"Afraid… paranoid… nervous… all of the above. I want to make sure I'm making the right choice," Marie honestly answered, not wanting to lie to one of her possible donors. Amaranth removed his headphones from around his neck and rested them on the table.

By the living room window, where the fire escape rested outside of, Maize was secretly watching them. He did not care about the heavy rain that was pelting down on him. Trying to make sure his friend was alright was the bigger priority.

"First time, huh? I understand your worry… so what do you wanna ask me about first?" Amaranth reassured it was alright and she could relax here. He was not going to take offense to her own fear that he might be a horrible donor. She had quite a few questions to ask, yet she thought it might be best to start simple.

"So… you have a record of cancer, right?" Marie began. Amaranth nodded, showing the long scar on his arm.

"You guessed it. When I was six, they found four tumors in my arm. They had to cut out a lot of my muscle before they could do treatment. I was cured a year later, but I've had two reoccurrences of my cancer from seven to ten, but I was cured at eleven after another set of treatment, and since then, I haven't had any more reoccurrences. But it still hurts like a lava burn," Amaranth explained. His immense pain was something that was going to follow him his whole life, if it was not for Cornell anyway.

"Oh… jeez, I'm sorry… you have a criminal record too?" Marie continued her questions, wanting to keep this professional, but she was aware they were far beyond that point.

"You mean that splatfest incident that happened a while back? I had a part in that, but I turned over toward the end against Cornell, so when I got arrested, they gave me just a 20,000 coin fine and a week in jail," Amaranth explained. He got off lightly for the attempted sabotage of the splatfest, and he was very happy to have had it happen. His life was changed from there on. Marie was stunned hearing all of this.

"You helped Cornell? …I mean I'm glad you had a change of heart, but still you helped that lunatic?" she had to ask. It was a shocker, and he assumed she knew very well what had happened. Maize had informed the Squid Sisters of Cornell after what happened.

"I know it was pathetic. I got addicted to the drug he offered, because it stopped my pain entirely! …but some yellow squid beat me in a fight and opened my eyes. He promised me everything would be fine without Cornell, so I wanted to make sure they would be. I took his medicine and found the way to make it. In fact, that's what the demonstration tomorrow's about. I'm showing the medicine to a drug company," Amaranth exclaimed. After Maize had made a huge impact on his life, the pink squid wanted to make sure that all those in pain wrangled in by Cornell by the offer of his pain relieving medicine would not have to worry anymore about the constant pain, and could relieve all fears with the medicine being still available.

"…sorry, I overreacted… I hope your demonstration goes well" Marie apologized, feeling guilty for how shocked she acted toward him. It appeared Cornell's desire for his grandfather's medicine to help others in the world would go on.

"I don't blame ya. Anything else you wanna know about me?" he asked while walking over to the counter and twisting a lever on one of the small heating pans, which began to boil the liquid in the beaker. This was supposed to be a conversation about his medical condition and family history.

"Is cancer a common problem in your family?" Marie hesitantly requested to know if more than just him had suffered from cancer before, aware that sometimes it can be a condition that can increase in rates from family members.

"…I'd like to say no, but to be honest with you, some of my relatives would say I got it from my parents, even though they don't have it. I haven't seen much of my family outside of my parents and cousins," Amaranth answered. He sounded not too shy about bringing up his family.

"How can you get something from your parents if they never had it?" Marie chimed, finding that statement nonsensical. He chuckled lightly, going over to her and pulling a photo from his wallet, presenting it to her. She looked at it confusedly, seeing two other bright pink squids. The picture seemed to show the two at a wedding.

"They're brother and sister," Amaranth simply stated. Marie kept a straight face, despite her surprise in the matter. She understood what he meant now. Being born from an incestuous relationship must not have made any of their family happy.

"Thanks for giving me your time," Marie nodded, returning the photo to him. He put it back in his wallet, seeming quite cheery of it all.

"It's no problem. I hope it helps your choice of who you want to be the donor," Amaranth told her. She shook her head to be truthful. She had only been made a bit more uncomfortable with the option. He was one of the only two donors she had selected from.

"A little… thanks again. I'll let you get back to your work," Marie told him goodbye before beginning to leave the apartment room and making her way out of the complex. Amaranth shook his head, going back to his setup.

"Huh?" he quirked, hearing a tapping on his window. He smiled, seeing Agent 3 there on the fire escape. He went over and opened the window, watching the wet squid fall onto the floor.

"Oof! Ow… h-hey there," Maize greeted, being helped up.

"Hey! If it isn't the splatfest hero," Amaranth happily greeted, seeing the yellow squid trying to shake off some of the water. He found this awkward, but the pink inkling seemed very overjoyed to see him.

"That's in the past now. I see you're holding up well for yourself," Maize commented.

"Yeup! Just like you promised. Everything would be alright without Cornell, so I wanted to make sure it would be alright for everyone as well," Amaranth exclaimed, looking ready to give the same speech he had given to Marie just a moment ago. Sometimes the yellow inkling hated how polite he was.

"That was my friend that you just were talking to. Can you please let me in on what's going on?" Maize requested. He could barely hear anything through the window, but this talk of donors and other subjects made him paranoid. Marie was getting some emergency surgery soon. The whole talk about picking her donor was confusing.

"Wow… I wish I had a stalker for a friend," Amaranth joked. Maize facepalmed just trying to brush that aside.

"Look, can you just tell me please? It's really important. Our friends are really worried about her," Maize repeated. The pink squid scratched his head with a grin.

"Will you help me test a few of my batches of the pain reliever? I know the recipe, but tests still need to be made to make sure it works right," Amaranth explained the offer between them. If agent 3 would test the medicine, then he will gladly talk. Maize groaned and held his hand out, being handed a small glass tube with a cork in it.

"I better be able to move after this," Maize chugged it down quickly. He felt nothing.

"Did it work?" Amaranth tilted his head confusedly.

"I'unno… I don't really have any real pain, but I didn't have any before I came in here," Maize answered. Now he wished he had Cornell's medicine back when his tentacle got bitten off. That would have helped a lot. The pink squid sighed in disappointment.

"Alright. Well I'll tell you then," he nodded, wanting to keep up his half of the deal like he promised, having no intention of going back on it. Amaranth began to go into detail about what was going on with Marie and what exactly she needed a donor for. The more he talked, the more lost Maize got in his thoughts. It looked like Callie was far from right when she thought Marie was jealous, and Maize was wrong about her being depressed. While the explanation continued, Marie was heading to her next stop to meet the other possible donor.


	38. Donor

Marie sat at a bus stop. The glass walls and the roof provided decent shelter from the rain. The next bus was supposed to be there about ten minutes ago. All the white inkling was doing was looking over the other red folder. She had all too many thoughts ringing through her head. She sighed, closing the folder and resting her head in her hand.

"I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack…" Marie muttered before she heard a slight banging on a piece of metal, looking over to her right with a quirked eyebrow.

"Uh, knock knock?" she saw Maize beside the bus stop sign, having knocked on it jokingly. She was not in the mood to hear a mission went completely off the rails and he needed her help. However another thought came to mind.

"Wait a minute, Maize… why are you here?" Marie questioned. She had felt like someone had been following her for quite a long time ever since she visited Amaranth's apartment. She could only presume it was her dear friend here.

"I followed you," Maize honestly answered. She opened her mouth, initially wanting to scold him, but she paused, confused. She expected a lie from him on that part. Now the Squid Sister was unsure whether to be upset with him for his stalking, or be thankful that he told the truth. She moved over, letting him take a seat on the bench. He was soaking wet, though she was not in much better condition.

"So what's so important you had to follow me around?" Marie requested, returning the file to her bag. Agent 3 showed a clear sign of worry on his face. He decided to be straight forward about this, even at the risk of being slapped for invading her privacy.

"I know about the procedure you signed up for," Maize began, just sitting there. He wanted to do as Callie requested and make sure her cousin was alright. It was a good sign though that she was not depressed or jealous. He just wished the real truth of her matter was not revealed at least to him.

"…I guess I didn't do that good of a job at hiding it," Marie rolled her eyes, rummaging around in her bag before pulling out and presenting the tan file to him, just to let him get confirmation since he already knew.

"I got approved fast, and bribed my doctor to let me get more information on the two donors I selected," Marie claimed. Maize opened the file, revealing the mere results from a check-up, which gave him confirmation for what he talked about with Amaranth earlier. He almost could not believe it, but it was true. The top of the folder had a signature and other writing on it.

"Approved by Dr. Goldenwood to undergo in vitro fertilization."

"…Marie," Maize stuttered as his friend took the folder back, returning it to her bag. She took her damp hat off her head, letting her tentacles back out. She lost care for being disguised for now. If any other squid saw them, she would just find a way to lose them, but thankfully no one seemed to be coming, not even the very bus she had been waiting for.

"…but… why do you want to have a squishie?" Maize asked. All of this was just a minor operation to impregnate an inkling with the anonymous help of donations, or at least they were supposed to be, until she bribed her way into getting more information and keeping the medical visit secret.

"I guess you won't let up if I leave it at 'I just want to have one'," Marie joked. He sure seemed to be in a different mood. The usually cheery blonde squid kept his straight face, trying to solve the puzzle. He was not against the idea of his best friend having a squishie, but he wanted to make sure her reasoning was sound.

"Are you jealous of Callie for having Bondi?" Maize spoke up, seeing her rub her eye tiredly. It was not even two in the afternoon, yet she felt completely drained already.

"No… I'm not jealous… I'm really happy for them. It's just…" Marie seemed to hesitate, looking ashamed to really even consider admitting her true feelings, but she loved Bondi just as much as her cousin did. Jealousy was the last thing on her mind. Maize put a hand on her shoulder, wanting her to continue. He had no intentions of judging her no matter what she said or did.

"I… ever since she got Bondi, it's somewhat put my life in perspective. The truth is… I feel unfulfilled. Sure, I'm rich and famous, and now a part of an ever growing group of agents helping out as many squids as we can, but I still feel empty," Marie explained. Everything she had done once made her fulfilled, but ever since Bondi had come along into the Squid Sisters' lives, it really set the white inkling into some deep thought. She felt unaccomplished in her personal life. The yellow inkling looked at her in awe, unsure what to respond with. He decided to try and more focus on the main part of the conversation, while reassuring her otherwise.

"And you think having a squishie would fill that emptiness?" Maize saw Agent 2 nod. He was beginning to get an idea on what to do. He did not seeing her having a squishie as a horrible thing at all, but her reasoning was what worried him. Even so, he understood how she felt entirely.

"I'd like to think so… I know I don't sound like my normal self, and I'm sorry. It's just really...I feel like my heart is speaking more than my brain…" Marie stated in apology, noticing Maize gain a small smirk. He recalled those exact words being said by Callie a while back when she first considered adopting Bondi. The Squid Sisters seemed to be in great sync, even if it was unintentional.

"You really aren't acting like yourself," he nodded, trying to understand from her point of view as much as he could. He decided it was time to quit holding back and to share his true thoughts and feelings on the matter. He was being nice and hoped what he would say would not upset one of his best friends. She was rubbing one of her tentacles for comfort.

"Marie… when you have a squishie, you're not just making a new squid. You're dedicating a part of your life to raising it. Nothing will be the same, and decisions like this need a lot more time to be made. In hindsight… I feel horrible for how I pressured Callie into adopting Bondi like I did. I feel like I robbed a part of her life from her," Maize declared how he felt about the adoption situation. He was happy with how great she did as a mother so far, but he still felt guilty for it all. Despite her joy.

"And I know you'd be the freshest mom you could be… but this isn't something you can decide in one week's time," Maize added. Marie looked at him, surprised to be having this kind of conversation with him. She of course planned to talk with Callie and Captain Cuttlefish about it, too, but that was going to be after the procedure was done.

"…guess I kind of do look a bit crazy, don't I?" Marie asked while pulling out and holding her folder, sighing. She was aware of all of his points. Each one of them was valid. As if the awkward atmosphere was not enough.

"Yeah. You do," Maize smirked, seeing her look to the right where a trash can was stationed. She looked hesitant to toss away the folders.

"How long do you think I should wait before I decide?" Marie asked while dropping them into the trash can. She had no idea how long she should wait before she decided whether or not to proceed with the plan to have a squishie. Maize insisted that it would take a lot of time to make a decision like that. However he had no idea how long would be good enough.

"If you're thinking about it as often as you say… I'd say… I dunno, maybe a month or two," Maize grinned.

"Well… if I do decide to go through with it, I'd have to pick new donors personally… and get approval again," Marie sighed in annoyance. He wondered if it was really that painful or expensive to pick a donor to help have a squishie. He had an idea on how to brighten her mood.

"Hey! I owe you a million coins after all. So if you decide to go through with it, I'll gladly be your donor!" Maize grinned, noticing that mile long stare and blank look on his best friend's face. Before he knew it, Agent 3 was pinned on the bench with Agent 2's hands around his throat. She was blushing furiously.

"Wh-what kind of sick joke is that?! What goes through your head!?" Marie shouted, not sure about taking his offer of being a donor as a great thing from a dear friend, or the extension of an idea from an entirely oblivious squid's thoughts. Maize expected this kind of reaction from her, just with a little less choking.

"He-hey! You're the one who wanted a squishie! I'm just being nice!" he coughed, trying to get her to let go of him. He hated joking in serious moments unless it was to try and lighten the mood, and right now he was trying to be that one friend that could be there to help whenever no one else could. The yellow inkling noticed nothing from her attempted choking. The only thing he felt right now was slightly sleepy. He wondered if that was from Amaranth's medicine he tested. Suddenly they both could hear a loud ringing.

"…that's my cellphone," Maize said. Marie finally got off him, sitting back on the bench. The yellow inkling sat up, getting his phone out and looking to the small screen. Captain Cuttlefish was calling. He was glad the elder squid called.

"Hello, cap'n. What's going on?" he answered.

"Squiddo! It's a bit of an urgent matter and I need you over at Octo Valley right away," Captain Cuttlefish spoke, and he sounded distressed.

"Sure, cap'n. I'll be right over," Maize hung up, concerned over what the captain needed him for. He got up from the bus bench and adjusted his splatterscope on his back, making sure it and his ink tank were ready to go.

"The captain needs us," Maize told Marie, holding his hand out to her. She grabbed it, letting him help her up.

"Alright… I don't think the bus is coming anyway," she stated it had been at least forty minutes and that bus still was nowhere in sight.

"Oh! About that… this bus stop got shut down due to construction on the fifth avenue," he stated. Marie's eye twitched in shock. She felt like a fool now for not knowing that. If he had not come along then, she could have been out here for hours before they left. However, she kept his hand firmly in hers.

"…your offer… thank you for it… thank you for a lot of things," Marie sighed. She could not believe what she was about to say.

"If I do consider it, then I'll let you be the donor… but not because of the debt," the white squid girl claimed. With that said, she let go of his hand before beginning to walk ahead. Maize scratched his tentacle, confused.

"...I really need to learn how to read people better," Maize groaned, unsure if he should take that as a compliment and not care about the million coin debt. Otherwise she might have agreed to let him help her have a squishie out of some other miscellaneous reason. He tried to ignore it and just be happy to have helped her. He went to catch up to the Squid Sister. They were both concerned what was going on in Octo Valley that could cause their captain so much distress. They both planned on handling it quickly if it was a simple task, but they doubted that since the captain rarely had easy missions for them.


	39. DJ Octavios Plight

Maize and Marie had quickly made their way to the main plaza, caring little for the rain. The plaza was a bit more relaxed for this time of the day. It was odd, but the heavy rain could have just turned a lot off from playing in turf wars. The two agents approached the pipe to Octo Valley.

"Do you think something happened in Mollusk Metropolis?" Agent 3 wondered aloud, wanting to know what she thought could be going on.

"With gramps, anything is possible," Agent 2 shrugged before she stepped onto the pipe and changed into a small white squid, falling between the bars. He followed shortly behind her, changing into his yellow squid form. Both of them fell into the pipes toward Octo Valley.

When they both arrived to Octo Valley, they approached the usual location where their captain was. They found Captain Cuttlefish talking to DJ Octavio, only the old squid still was the one mainly doing the most of the talking like usual, and they both seemed to be in an equal amount of distress.

"Hi cap'n! What's going on?" Maize greeted their captain, seeing the two turn to face them.

"Squiddos! Oh, thank goodness you came… my, you two are soaking wet," Captain Cuttlefish spoke, Marie not wanting to talk about what she and her close friend had just discussed earlier, and instead focus on the task at hand.

"Nice to see you too, gramps. What's going on?" Marie responded sarcastically, worried that her grandfather had gotten into some kind of trouble once more.

"Do you have a mission for us, cap'n?" Maize requested, wanting to know right away if they had a mission. Agent 2 made note that he looked excited enough to shake the water off himself like a dog.

"No, squiddos. I have no mission for you. My friend here on the other hand does," Captain Cuttlefish motioned a hand toward the angry octopus in the snow globe. His usual intense hatred in his glare was not there today which was odd.

"He is telling the truth," DJ Octavio spoke. This was the first time they heard him talk ever since they fought him all that time ago. It shocked both of the inklings. They got up close to the snow globe, acting surprised like the octopus was a pet taught how to talk.

"Wow! You can talk! I was startin' to think you could only speak when music was playing…" Maize confessed in theory. That was probably the best reason for why the former octarian leader could not talk, but it turned out that his anger and hatred was that strong indeed to keep his lips sealed all this time.

"Silence, you idiot! This is a huge deal of utmost importance! I fear many lives are in danger… not just for Mollusk Metropolis, but for Inkopolis as well!" DJ Octavio exclaimed about this mission's threat. He had tried to break out of the snow globe hundreds of times in the course of a week when he saw the first signs that something bad was starting, and after a lot of coercing, he finally spoke to Captain Cuttlefish.

"Lives in danger? What can be that big of a threat?" Marie skeptically requested him to continue. She was highly doubting the truth of his words. This octopus specifically had a huge hatred for the agents.

"I… I do not know exactly! I only know of their followers! Their worshipers, I thought they were nothing but mythology. When my former soldiers were reporting sightings of the followers, they claim they confiscated a very important item from one. Please, you must go to my emergency hideaway," DJ Octavio continued his explanation. Maize had no idea how to take it. The octopus had some object important to these worshipers of some highly dangerous unknown entity. If something existed that could kill so many that had hundreds of followers and worshipers that were working in the shadows for so long, then they definitely had to do something about it.

"Yeah… your hideaway, the one that's probably rigged with traps?" Marie responded. It sounded too insane. Captain Cuttlefish and the agents had tried to find DJ Octavio's hideouts in hopes of finding more sunken scrolls, but to no avail. She felt her dear friend's hand on her shoulder.

"Marie, this is DJ Octavio. He has a lot simpler tricks he could use to kill us, and I don't think this octopus would ever show fear as an act," Maize declared his reasoning for why he believed the former enemy of theirs. They only referred to him as former since they had him captured.

"She is not wrong. I do have several traps set up at the hideaway, including one to protect any important treasure my army discovered. The important item these worshipers might want is in there. I have been afraid all these years of them stealing it for some reason. All that thing did was fill me with fear just with holding it," Octavio continued while twirling his wasabi sticks. He never understood why, but he was afraid all this time. That his army was not wrong that these worshipers of this unknown entity were working on something big, but all of his former army had been afraid of losing their lives as well.

"Squiddos, I know you don't feel safe, but the truth is my friend here is trusting a mission to the Special Squid Services. And what is it we do as agents?" Captain Cuttlefish waited to hear his two agents repeat the Special Squid Services' goal.

"To help out any squid in trouble…" Marie groaned.

"No matter what we have to do!" Maize finished for her. Captain Cuttlefish looked quite proud to have the two as agents.

"Squiddos, I already got his old hideaway marked down on a map. It's in Mollusk Metropolis, but I implore you to be careful. You're gonna need back up for this," Captain Cuttlefish handed over a small map. Maize happily took it, acting like the seriousness of this mission had not sunk in.

"Just one more thing. Octavio, you said you ignored this and only your army noticed. What happened recently that made you notice?" Marie requested to know what made him start believing these odd followers' were real and active once more.

"…when everyone was gone, even your old squid here… something tossed the blanket on my snow globe, but I was able to see a glimpse of them! They were covering all eyes to get a small group through…" DJ Octavio insisted what he saw was true. Others had invaded Octo Valley and knew of its whereabouts. Anyone could wander in on accident, and now that the octarian army was dealt with, there was minimal reason to care about guarding the valley, but it was concerning that someone would go out of their way to make it by unnoticed.

"Whatever this important item is, we'll make sure is safe, Octavio! I promise that," Maize grinned. Marie did not know whether to show immense respect that he was able to treat their old enemy like an average octopus, or find it awkward and start to doubt the sanity of DJ Octavio, considering that he was as old as Captain Cuttlefish.

"…Thank you, young one… at least I can be happy knowing that I was defeated by squids with such spirit," DJ Octavio bowed the best he could in his snow globe. Maize happily bowed back.

"Hey, gramps. Do you have any weapons lying around I can use? I need something that is not a charger if we're going in blind," Marie requested. Her grandfather nodded, reaching under one of his many piles of boxes that were the items that fell into Octo Valley that he then gathered. He grabbed one before tossing out something randomly behind him. She caught it and looked it over. It was a small weapon, orange and white in color. It was a Luna blaster, nothing fancy and with not the best range, but it could pack quite the punch. She was handed an ink tank filled with green ink, which she then tossed it over her shoulders and onto her back, before putting the Luna blaster on her side. Maize got his black helmet to hide his one tentacle. Marie's hat was doing a good enough job of hiding hers.

"Good luck, squiddos!" Captain Cuttlefish bid the two, watching them hurry off so they could head through the long pipe to get into Mollusk Metropolis.

"Shouldn't we call the others?" Marie asked Agent 3 as they were beginning to walk through the pipe to Mollusk Metropolis. She saw him holding his cellphone.

"Err… well, I don't want Bondi anywhere near Octo Valley right now if it's really this dangerous… I don't even have Fulvous's phone number, and Fallow would just end up getting lost…" the more Maize muttered. It seemed pointless to even attempt to ring the other agents, as there were only a few in Mollusk Metropolis that were in easy access to be contacted. He dialed up the phone number of their favorite inventor octoling.

Octoronia was in her usual workshop, in her home garage. Tools were everywhere. The place looked like a mess with the poor lighting. She was and working on something, wielding a blowtorch and having her eyes covered with googles. That was until she heard her cellphone begin ringing. She stopped the fire from her torch and raised her goggles off her head, hitting a button and setting it on speaker.

"I'm working on something important so you have five minutes. Talk!" Octoronia called out, going over to the wall where a long and complex set of blueprints were dangling off of carelessly, with only pushpins and duct tape holding them up.

"Octoronia! Hey, sorry to bug you, but me and Marie need help," Maize's voice chimed out. She seemed to cheer up a lot more to know it was one of her friends instead of just another bothersome phone call from someone wanting to purposely eat up her time.

"What's going on?" Octoronia chirped, grabbing an oddly modified buzz saw off her workbench and resting it nearby her newest project. She saw ECO enter the workshop, looking confused.

"It's something that could be a huge problem. We need help investigating a location in case we're not alone there. All I know is we're going to need backup. Are you or ECO any good at detecting traps?" Maize chuckled nervously, aware that the question might come off ridiculous to her. Just because she was an inventor did not mean she was adept at detecting any form of technology and trap.

"What kind of traps? Explosives? Barbed wire? Saltwater?" she requested him to go deeper if he knew more.

"Uhh… all I know is they're going to possibly be traps left by the former octarian army. Does that give you any idea?" Maize explained the best he could. Almost instantly he heard a loud clattering in the background of the phone call.

"Oh dear… not another harvest," ECO sighed, holding her head, irritated. She was happy to hear Maize needed their help, but the things her sister had planned to do during this mission was going to be a bit frustrating.

"I got just the thing, Maize! Where do you want us to meet up at?" Octoronia eagerly requested. Her metallic sister sighed, aware she had to get ready, to going over and beginning to fiddle with the machines in the workshop.

"Err, Sunken Avenue on 9th and Eastern Street," Marie read aloud from the map, trying to view it to get an idea where the two were going, and had little to nil idea. Captain Cuttlefish had an unsteady hand, so that made this all the more unsure.

"We'll be there. Just be prepared for an over excited octoling," ECO agreed before hanging up. She looked over to her sibling.

"Do we really have to harvest more energy? We have exhausted a lot of our research for the material. We could make millions of tokens off them," ECO requested to not waste their time on the apparent energy harvesting and just prioritize helping their friends more. Tokens were just what octarians called coins.

"A true researcher knows no meaning to the word exhausted!" Octoronia gleefully replied.

"We're not researchers! We're inventors! Dad was the researcher…" ECO reminded, thinking this was going to be a long day. Bringing up their father depressed them both immensely, but they had to be there as agents to back up the others, and the mechanical octoling seemed more concerned for Maize than anything else. That same purple chest light shined, much to her sibling's frustration. This crush ECO had on the yellow inkling was going to be something he had to address, which Octoronia had tried and failed to do.

"Please don't bring up dad. Let's just hurry up, we got no time to lose," Octoronia flatly ordered. ECO nodded, aware that it was a delicate topic more so for her sister than the robot herself. She continued to help get ready so they could leave and meet up with the other agents.

It had taken another hour for Maize and Marie to arrive to Sunken Avenue. When the two arrived, they could see that this was a greatly abandoned home. The windows were all busted and encased in vines. The usual nature of Mollusk Metropolis that normally made things more beautiful seemed to be just a terror to this home, tearing apart the outside and then the interior.

"…and this is Octavio's emergency hideaway?" Marie asked, turning to Agent 3. It seemed very horrible for the hideout of a former army leader. She wondered if this was just the term lay low being taken very seriously.

"This is where the map took us, so either the cap'n messed up or we're just missing something," Maize claimed, scratching his head, trying to figure it out. There had to be something more to this than they were seeing.

"Sorry we're late!" they suddenly heard, seeing Octoronia and ECO approaching. They were glad to see Agents 4 and 5. However they both seemed to have odd machines on their backs, aside from the usual ink tanks filled with purple ink and their slather blasters on their sides. The machines they carried looked like smaller metal and plastic barrels, with strange vacuum devices on the side.

"Hi… uh, what are those?" Maize questioned, concerned. He was presuming it was acid out of fear.

"They're containment units," ECO unenthusiastically said, her chest light glowing red in irritation to be carrying these containers.

"Well, whatever they're for, it doesn't matter. We seem to have the wrong area," Marie claimed, wanting to try and head back to double check on the information from DJ Octavio and Captain Cuttlefish to make sure they would not get lost. Maize was starting to notice a more tiring feeling with each passing hour, and it was starting to worry him. Amaranth's medicine had done something to him, but he was hoping he could fight it off.

"Wait. We should at least check it out before we go back all that way," Maize insisted they press further. Marie sighed, not seeing any reason not to.

"All octarian army traps were powered by an odd energy supply, and I brought just the thing to find that kind of energy," Octoronia pulled out a device that resembled a small pocket watch, tossing it to Maize. The yellow inkling opened it confusedly, seeing a monitor on the top part, and a pad of buttons on the bottom.

"How does it work?" Maize asked. After he had already hit four different buttons, he heard a light beep, seeing the screen flicker on. Just a virtual compass appeared on it.

"…you wasted time making a device that made a compass to find this energy? Couldn't you have just made a compass to do the same thing?" Marie had to admit it was dumb to her as the four were nearing the damaged two story home.

"I didn't make it. All I did was repair it," Octoronia retorted, seeing one of the busted windows with some glass still left in it. She raised her leg up and started kicking out the glass. Once cleared out, she climbed on through into the darkness of the living room.

"It was our father's device. It's a bit touchy for her, but shortly after the octarian army was made, he was requested to try and find a suitable source of power for all their devices," ECO started. Marie had little care. She had tolerated the octarian army long enough. If DJ Octavio had not made this out to be such a huge life threatening matter of the utmost importance, she would presume he was trying to get them killed.

"Then they found out about the great zapfish… right?" Maize guessed what happened next. The metallic octoling nodded.

"All the baby zapfish and the great one… Infinite sources of power that worked a lot better than father's did. The only difference was how plentiful they both were. Father's energy could be made easily with little cost, but they aren't the strongest. The zapfish, on the other hand, have a limited number of their species, but supply a lot more strength to their power, so once they decided to use the more powerful source, they tossed dad out of the researchers of the army," ECO continued while she was climbing through the window, helping the yellow squid inside. He had somewhat forgotten about the crush she had on him, but he doubted she had simply gotten over it.

"All because his energy source was not as strong?" Maize found it a bit insane to imagine how easily the researcher got booted out of the army, all because he messed up. DJ Octavio used to run a tighter crew than he did when the agents came along to halt him.

"Of course. That was how the octarian army functioned. So he became desperate to prove that it was better, and… well, he wound up killing himself in the process. When an invention of his went haywire and absorbed too much energy… it exploded," ECO finished her explanation. It seemed to hurt Octoronia a lot more than her mechanical sibling.

"Oh… I'm so sorry," Maize apologized. He could not claim what it felt like to lose a loved one to death. He only had lost his mother due to her running away from home one night, and his father was facing a couple of life sentences in prison.

"That's how Octoronia began to get more serious than ever about her inventions. She wanted to make sure nothing like that would occur for any other octopi," ECO claimed. Her sister was not the biggest inventor around and had only recently started to get better. ECO had received quite a few upgrades since then, and was glad to help the inventor octoling with everything she created.

"…if that's what she wants to do, then sure. Whatever the motivation is, just know if you ever have a problem, just ring me up, and I promise to be there as fast as I can," Maize reassured as the two entered a completely empty living room. The floor was brittle and damaged, and covered in at least twelve layers of dust.

"…thank you so much!" ECO suddenly hugged him. Maize saw her purple chest light. He never expected that reaction. He wondered if having someone to rely on was really that important to her.

"Hey! You two find anything?" Marie's voice rung out from another room. Their embrace broke, Maize looking down at the virtual compass, which was pointing left. He just followed it along, he and ECO entering into an old hallway that was connected to the front door, and the stairwell that had long since rotted away and was far too unsafe to climb. They found Marie there who was looking in one of the closets.

"Not yet. Anything in there?" Maize asked. The Squid Sister shook her head.

"Not unless you want mushrooms" the white squid joked. Inside the closer, the floor had been torn out, and now had huge red mushrooms with white spots all over them. They were amazingly big in size.

"If they are safe for consumption, then perhaps you should try one?" ECO giggled in suggestion. Maize groaned. It seemed like his friends wanted to poison him lately, but he couldn't deny that the shrooms were strange to him. He just closed the closet door back, the virtual compass now pointing straight ahead down the hall.

"The kitchen's all full of spiders! Like, giant spiders!" Octoronia called out with the sound of faint squishing noises. They saw the inventor octoling come out from the kitchen, covered in spider webs that she was desperately trying to brush off.

"Try and avoid anything growing or nesting in this house, alright?" Maize requested from all of his friends. They all agreed and continued to follow behind the yellow squid. He followed the digital compass, finding it hard to follow, but it did lead them to a door at the back of the home that had nothing but an eerie atmosphere to it.

"Wow… this is locked tight," ECO commented, looking at the door. Part of the doorframe had been busted, as well as part of the door itself, with holes on them. Chains were connecting through the holes together, keeping the door tight shut, with five different locks. Two locks required keys, another two required specific four digit codes, and the last one looked like a very advanced finger print scanner.

"Whoa… I don't think we're going to be opening it anytime soon," Octoronia said. There was no way they could find two codes, two keys, and somehow a fingerprint within this entire abandoned home, and if this was DJ Octavio's hideaway, only he might know, but he sure did not inform any of the Special Squid Services of this. Maize, however, had an idea.

"Hold on'a sec. This house is old, and it's somewhat settling… that means…" Maize grinned, speaking out his thought process. This home was beginning to fall apart due to the long period of time it had been left unattended, and all the rain, and tree roots and vines growing throughout it, was also damaging the home.

"Wait, don't tell me you're going to…" Marie watched Agent 3 take a few steps back before he darted at the door, jumping at it and throwing the strongest kick he could. They heard the loud splintering and cracking of the door, watching the wood break in half as their friend fell into the stairwell below, his screaming echoing loudly behind him. Marie sighed in annoyance.

"I hope he did not dislocate his shoulder again," ECO commented before beginning to climb down the stairs into the basement. Octoronia and Marie followed behind her, trying to be careful with the broken shards of the door scattered on each step.

"Maize! Are you alright?!" Marie called out. It was creepy how dark it was down here. ECO grabbed three of her fingers on her right hand, pulling them back. A few lights shot out from them. Her fingers acted like miniature flashlights. She had a few items that could be useful in emergencies, but not much otherwise.

"Ohhh… actually, I don't feel anything," Maize spoke up. Oddly enough he felt no pain. He did not feel hot or cold. He couldn't even feel the sensation of his hands touching the ground. As worried as he was getting, he just tried to brush it off, thinking his body still was processing Amaranth's medicine. His friends were relieved he was alright though, they could see that this basement was completely empty. The digital compass lay nearby on the ground, Marie picking it up and reading it. It was pointing straight ahead.

"Hey, shine those lights over here," Agent 2 requested. ECO nodded, aiming her hand lights toward where she was ordered. The group could see a metal hatch on the floor. It looked heavy, but thankfully it was not locked by five chains like the door that they had just busted through.

"Come on, all together now," Maize ordered. They could open it easily if they worked together. The four of them all grabbed one part of the hatch each before they put all their strength into trying to pull it open slowly. Surely enough, the rusty hatch began to creak open. When they flipped it upwards, it flopped hard onto the concrete ground. It broke off the latches that had been keeping it shut.

"…I can't see the bottom," ECO fearfully said, her chest light tinted blue. There was a long ladder in the hatch and it led into a deep and dark pit. It just kept going. They all knew they had to go inside.

"This is the hideaway. Keep calm and don't panic, but be careful," Maize said, fixing his glasses since they got quite ruffled from the fall.

"I'm scared of heights," Marie simply stated. Her dear friend had no idea how to handle that as Octoronia already made her way down the ladder, wanting to find these traps immediately.

"Hey, don't worry. You can go after ECO, and I'll come next. That way, if you fall, you won't fall alone!" Maize offered. Marie had no idea how he managed to be reassuring while sounding like the biggest moron she had ever heard in a while. The Squid Sister let ECO go first, and then she climbed in after her. Maize happily climbed down the ladder after them, hoping that they could find this very important item fast with no trouble, but the yellow squid highly doubted his luck on the matter of getting out calmly.


	40. Trap

**Authors Note: Wow, 40 chapters. I'm still amazed that it's been 40 days since I started this, either way I hope you enjoy! Take care!**

The group of agents had descended down the very long ladder that hopefully would lead them to DJ Octavio's secret hideaway. The ladder felt like it was going on forever. It was beginning to get creepier as the darkness surrounded them.

"Ow! You stepped on my hand!" ECO chimed.

"Sorry, sorry!" Marie apologized, trying her best not to look down out of fear for how high up they were. They still had no sight of Octoronia. Maize was just yawning, feeling more drained the longer the day went on. After a while they finally heard some good news.

"Hey! I see light," ECO claimed. It was an odd sight that there would be light this far underground. The three of them finally reached the bottom of the ladder, all happy to finally get off of it. They could see some type of underground facility that was in a spherical shape. There were lights dangling from the ceiling that were shining brightly and illuminating the darkness.

"This is Octavio's hideaway? Really feels kind of homey," Maize commented, seeing the grass beneath their feet. There was another small home there and this place. Before any of the agents could take a step, Octoronia chimed up.

"Wait!" Octoronia ordered, popping up from nearby.

"What? Is it a trap?" Maize asked, worried that they had set one off just by disembarking the ladder somehow.

"Err… I found three of the traps already and took all their power, though while I was trying, I found some odd machine and couldn't help but fiddle with it," Octoronia explained, as they felt the entire underground hideout shake. Agent 3 facepalmed.

"Sis, I thought you wouldn't mess with any cool robots without me!" ECO claimed, disappointed.

"Sorry! I couldn't contain myself!" Agent 4 panicked as the rumbling and shaking got more intense. It was beginning to get hard to stand up straight. They suddenly took notice of something in the middle of the area between them and the home of the hideout. The ground began breaking and cracking as it began to open. They saw a huge metal tentacle break through the dirt as it began to tear the dirt apart, trying to get the rest of itself out.

"You activated a robot?!" Marie gawked. DJ Octavio's army had some mean huge ink shooting machines, and they were all equally annoying. Maize hated fighting them all, mostly because of how many times they splattered him before he finally defeated them. It was a painful battle each time.

"It didn't like me trying to siphon its energy!" Octoronia responded in her own defense. The ground broke, and the large multi limbed robotic octopus rose. Of all of the octarian army's designs, this one seemed the most basic in appearance. It began spraying out a dark shade of purple ink from its mouth. The group, seeing the giant machine, they all got their weapons prepared.

"Wh-what the heck?! Does it have a zapfish in it?!" Maize asked, aiming his splatterscope while squeezing the trigger, charging his weapon pre-emptively. Normally the other octarian military robots had their very well exposed weak points, which would be a huge tentacle with a green scar on it like DJ Octavio's own tentacles. However this robot exposed no such weakness like that.

"No! It's got our father's power source in it, and it must be quite a lot!" ECO exclaimed, watching it slam another tentacle on the ground, breaking up the dirt once again. The impression left a lot of its ink behind now. Each tentacle was starting to produce the same colored ink as well.

"And it's wasting it!" Octoronia growled. They watched her charge forward. The mechanical octopus swung overhead at her with one of its tentacles. She froze up in place seeing the shadow of it coming toward her. A burst of green ink shot it and knocked it to the side, making it miss and hit the ground right beside Agent 4, much to her relief.

"Stay calm! No point in dying for whatever it is you're after," Marie reminded her with her Luna blaster aimed at the robot. Octoronia bit her lip, nodding. Maize fired a burst of yellow ink, hitting the head of the giant robot. All that did was leave a stain of yellow ink that seemed to irritate it. The four agents were now splitting up, ECO having thrown off the container on her back so she would not be weighed down. Maize did not want to admit it, but he was presuming the best option they had was to let it burn out all of its energy until it could no longer operate. It upset him, because he knew how important it was to Octoronia, but sometimes situations are far out of their control.

"Here it comes!" Maize shouted, watching the other agents begin trying to take this machine on from multiple angles. ECO really felt bad, wishing that it had not been activated so everything could be somewhat simpler for them, but maybe she could get a nice little upgrade by what they get scrapped out of it. The oversized robot spun around, trying to hit them all with its tentacles, throwing its ink everywhere. Maize threw himself onto the ground under it, and same did Octoronia. Marie jumped back away to not be hit, but got a few of the purple ink splotches over her clothes.

"Ew…! Purple does not look good on me," the Squid Sister muttered. Callie was the one who looked better in purple. She saw ECO hit a button on her slather blaster, activating its special ability. The blaster changed into a megaphone like shape, with paint on it that made it look like a shark.

"Sorry!" ECO apologized squeezing the trigger, right when the giant robot tried to swing at her with another tentacle. The weapon unleashed a loud screech with a wave of light purple ink strong enough to send the mechanical octopus recoiling. It was beginning to topple backwards. She had activated one of the octoling's special weapons, a shark screecher, which was able to send anything thrown right back and anything nearby get sent flying back as well.

"Oh, splat me…" Maize groaned. The big robot was threatening to fall on him. He just began running aside, seeing the big damage it was causing to the ground as it fell. Meanwhile his ears were hurting from the high-pitched sound right now.

"I've got you!" Octoronia ran up, aiming her slather blaster, activating its special weapon as well. It was another shark screecher. She immediately pulled the trigger, another loud screech ringing out. The giant robotic octopus got knocked at another direction. This time it fell over and crashed into the ladder, breaking part of it off. It was beginning to dig its tentacles into the ground, attempting to get back up.

"What does it take to smash this thing?!" Maize asked. It was astounding how much this sturdy enemy could take.

"Activate your special weapon. We'll take it on together" Marie sighed, assuring that the two of them could do some damage with their special weapons. Maize nodded, hitting a button on the side of his splatterscope. Marie pulled back her Luna blaster, watching it change and expand in size, and morph into an inkzooka. They saw the giant robot dig its tentacles further into the ground. They suddenly popped up behind them.

"Gah!" ECO got grabbed by the huge tentacle, which wrapped around her and crushed her in its grip. Octoronia got grabbed by her legs, being hoisted into the air. She just began bashing away at it with her weapon, attempting but failing to try and make it let go.

"Don't hold back!" Maize ran for the boss bot, and then began to throw a lot of triangular shaped ink bombs with his bomb rush special ability. Marie began firing her inkzooka, each blast seeming to momentarily stun the giant robot, leaving a big green ink splotch each hit. The thrown ink bombs then began to explode around its lower body and some of its tentacles, creating a yellow mess.

"Oof!" Octoronia got freed from the tentacle and landed on her back. ECO was able to land on her own two feet, going over to make sure her sister was unharmed.

"Still nothing?!" Marie roared as her inkzooka reverted back to a Luna blaster. Maize's bomb rush had ended and now his ink tank was empty, because he had unwittingly thrown a few extra ink bombs after his bomb rush had run out.

"Wow. I wish I was that resilient," Maize muttered before letting out a long yawn. For some reason this tense battle was not rejuvenating his energy. The giant robot was getting ready for another attack, when suddenly, its bright yellow eyes flickered for a moment before going dark. They watched its tentacles harmlessly plop onto the ground before it stopped moving.

"…is it defeated?" ECO hesitantly broke the silence that was taking over for the group. Octoronia stepped up, burying her face in her hands.

"It… It's all gone, it burnt all the energy up," she sniffled, just sitting on the ground, upset. Maize felt horrible, putting his splatterscope on his back. Marie rested her Luna blaster on her side.

"I'll stay to try and cheer her up. You two go see if you can find this item," Marie insisted she could take care of Agent 4, taking a seat on the grass with her.

"Thank you…" Agent 5 bowed to the Squid Sister before the mechanical octoling went toward the small home in this huge hideout, just to help find any traps. Maize followed along, aware of the damage that had occurred to the ladder now. He was afraid of how they would be able to escape this underground hideaway, but he knew that they could find some way to get back out.

"Why does your sister want this energy her father made so badly?" Maize asked, aware of how the octoling's father had died trying to prove its usefulness, but that did not really explain why Octoronia was motivated to gather the energy. The two stepped into the small home, which had lights inside. It all seemed like a snug, cozy home for a hideout, all things considered.

"…it's because she wants to do what he failed at…" ECO simply answered as they walked through the home. It seemed to have its own layers of dust on it from lack of use. They looked around, trying to find the room that would house the important item that these worshipers were searching for.

"Oh… as in, she wants to improve and make it useful right?" Maize repeated what he thought was right.

"Yes, precisely," ECO nodded. Octoronia wanted to find a way to create the energy herself. She did not care about the risk. She was going to prove that the energy their father made was truly useful and reliable.

"As long as these octarian war weapons that housed the energy exist, she won't stop searching until she gathers enough to learn how to replicate them," ECO added. She was thankful that they had gathered little of the special energy here. Maize hated to imagine either of his friends putting themselves in danger like this. They came across a door that had a huge lock on it with thick chains, with a small plaque on the door that read, 'important storage'.

"Any idea how to get in?" Agent 3 asked. He saw no keys around that would get the lock open. Agent 5 shrugged.

"It's a simple lock mechanism, and it really is out of date… so that means I should be able to just do… this…!" ECO inserted one of her mechanical tentacles into the lock. A few seconds of twisting and turning, and they heard a loud click. She retracted her tentacle, watching the lock fall to the floor with a loud thud, the chains rattling off.

"Wow… impressive." Maize said while they went down the steps into the basement. There was a light switch to the side. He flicked it up, watching the room illuminate. Treasure was everywhere, as well as other items. This basement had gold, silver and platinum, artifacts and fossils, and even valuable looking paintings. The octarian army really did hide anything valuable in this hideout.

"Did Octavio even tell you what this important item was?" ECO requested to know. Maize opened his mouth, initially wanting to say yes. But he grit his teeth once again. A lack of information was their biggest enemy right now, and it had a lot of other squids and octopi lives on the line. The yellow inkling tried to quickly get a rough idea on what they were looking for.

"…he said just holding it filled him with fear… so look for anything that gives you that feeling," Maize suggested, seeing the mechanical octoling tap her chest, hoping her purple chest light would actually work, not wanting her emotional cortex to sabotage their search. The yellow squid sighed, aware he was going to have to inevitably tackle this crush she had on him, but it had to wait until they finished this important mission.

They began to rummage around the room, moving one after another of the valuable treasures. These important items looked like they belonged to museums for both Inkopolis and Mollusk Metropolis if they had the option or ability to even carry half of this they would gladly they were handling each object with care

"…whoa," Maize attention was drawn on something that looked like an egg, resting neatly on a pillow within a glass box. The egg had some odd light blue random patterns to it. The yellow inkling was confused, but when he picked it up, there was no way to take the glass case off. However there was another problem.

"…it does seem scary," Maize admitted. Holding this egg in the glass chamber for some reason gave him a sense of dread. However the yellow squid let out another long yawn as his eyelids began to get heavy.

"Maize? Are you okay?" ECO asked, taking the egg from him almost instantly. Her chest light turned blue as fear overwhelmed her, but she wondered why he was falling asleep.

"I… I think I'm gonna take a nap," Maize instantly collapsed on the floor. Amaranth's medicine that he tested had finally taken effect after hours of working in his body, and had completely knocked him unconscious.

"Maize?" ECO tapped him with her foot concernedly. She grabbed her slather blaster from her side, shooting him with a small splotch of purple ink, hitting his face. Even the usual burning sting sensation that another colored ink had was not even able to awaken him. She sighed in frustration.

"You're lucky you're skinny," the mechanical octoling kept the glass case with the egg under her left arm before grabbing her friend. At times like this, she was thankful to be strong. She began to head back up the stairs, carrying the egg and the inkling she had a crush on out of the basement, hoping Marie and Octoronia would have some way to help.

"Sis! Marie! We have a problem!" ECO called out while carrying Maize and the egg. Both of her arms were full when she noticed something. There were five figures surrounding them all with various ink weapons, but they all were wearing white and black cloaks, so they could not make any details out about them.

"Tell me about it!" Marie growled while getting her Luna blaster ready, but then she saw Maize unconscious, which just irritated her further. Octoronia was holding her slather blaster, getting ready to fight because none of these disguised figures seemed even close to friendly. They could safely presume that these were the very worshipers that DJ Octavio and his former army were afraid of.


	41. Human?

The group found themselves in an odd situation. They were now being confronted by a group of five in white and black robes, all carrying various octoling and inkling weapons. And to make matters even worse, Maize was sleeping as hard as a rock, with leftover purple ink coating his face and glasses that were dangling carelessly off his head, and ECO's hands were full, carrying him and this odd egg shaped object they found in the hideaway's basement. The only good thing to this was that these odd followers had thankfully given a long rope as an alternate escape route.

"Hand it over," one of the robed figures demanded, holding their hand out, and their other hand armed with a splattershot pro.

"Hand what over?" Marie responded, her Luna blaster being aimed firmly for their head, ready to splat them in a heartbeat. Octoronia was making sure that none of the other robed enemies tried any sneaky tactics.

"The egg! Give it over now… or else," he pointed toward ECO. The mechanical octoling groaned, wondering how they were going to get out of this situation, but these clearly were the worshipers after this egg, indicating that it was indeed the important item in question.

"Or else what?" Octoronia smirked, seeing all weapons immediately get raised up and aimed at them.

"Or else we leave you down here to rot!" the robed figure spoke. He seemed to be the one to handle leading this small group of followers. However Marie was noticing something that did nothing but make her nervous. The weapons that the enemies were carrying were loaded with thick looking black ink, same for the ink tanks on their backs.

"Heh, well… in that case I guess, we have no choice," Marie lowered her weapon slowly before she went toward ECO and took the glass case under her arm.

"Wh-what?! Marie, you're going to just give it over?!" the robotic octoling asked in shock, she and Octronia terrified. Marie smirked.

"Hah! Of course not," she said, whipping her Luna blaster off her side and firing behind her. A green burst of ink hit the robed figure in the chest, and they were immediately splattered into a puddle of green ink.

"You sneaky angler! Now you've asked for it!" the other white and black robed figures began to arm their weapons. Octoronia took advantage and grabbed the one close to her, knocking their weapon out of their hand, and then she got behind them, using her free hand to turn the follower into an inkling shield.

"Wa-wait! Don't shoot-" the worshiper got blasted by the black ink by the three other followers, but was not splattered. He instantly fell unconscious, like the black ink was unable to splatter anyone.

"…oh no…" Octoronia gasped upon just seeing the effects of this black ink. She looked over to the other agents.

"Don't let it touch you!" Agent 4 screamed. Marie was confused, wondering what was wrong as she fired, splattering another one of the robed figures. The last two remaining began to open fire, spraying black ink at her. She blocked some of the ink with the glass chamber of the egg. However, she got hit in the leg by one of the stray splotches of black ink, and suddenly she felt all sensation in her leg vanish.

"Oof!" the white squid collapsed onto her side. She could not move her leg. It was all too scary to her. Before any more could hit her, ECO got in front of her, catching some of the blasts of black ink for her. Her chest light turned red in anger.

"What is th-this stuff?!" Marie fearfully asked. She never had seen ink do this to her or any other squid before. The robotic octoling had left Maize beside the hideaway to make sure the sleeping inkling was not harmed.

"It's oil refined in a special way mixed with salt! Be careful, it is very lethal!" ECO explained quickly. This salt and oil mix was not safe. It did not splatter inklings or octolings, but still caused harm. If the oil came into contact with any skin, the person hit would begin to lose all feeling in that area. After a few shots, they would fall into unconsciousness until it was cleaned off. and if it was not cleaned off within a few hours, the one hit would inevitably die.

"Knock it off!" Octoronia blasted the other two robed figures with purple ink. They got splattered easily. They were not able to take out ECO, as luckily the oil was not harmful to robots. Every one of the robed worshipers had been defeated, and the inventor octoling had one unconscious and captured now, thinking they could maybe get some information out of him. Everything had calmed down from there.

"Those worshipers are very serious," ECO commented while trying to clean the oil off Marie's leg. Already the Squid Sister was feeling a lot better with it being brushed off the best the mechanical octoling could do. Marie looked at the egg again. This glass it was held within was pretty tough, as it had withstood the fall quite well.

"So Octavio was telling the truth…" Marie muttered, wondering why she felt so afraid, looking over to Maize. He was just happily slumbering away. He appeared to be having a great dream. Agent 2 let ECO take the egg before she got back up.

"Now we have a way out," Octoronia chimed up happily. The odd worshipers had left the rope in place of the broken ladder, but there was a big problem. They had to carry out the unconscious worshiper, Maize and the egg, and somehow simultaneously climb out themselves. It was a challenge that was tough as nails, but they could do it.

"I'll carry Maize," Marie volunteered. Since the unconscious worshiper was heavier, it would be better for ECO to carry him.

"I'll hold the egg," Octoronia said, taking the egg from the white inkling. They both had the same thoughts, that this egg was somehow terrifying. The robotic octoling decided to explain it to them once they got out of the hideaway, but she was aware of how it continued the trend of forcing fear into the bodies of those who held it. They were aware it was going to take a few hours to get back to Octo Valley.

The day had went on in Octo Valley. The sun was beginning to set, and at the moment the two elders were at another game of checkers, patiently waiting for the return of the agents they had sent on this very important mission.

"How on earth do ya keep doin that?" Captain Cuttlefish asked. He had just got four of his checker pieces jumped over by DJ Octavio again. Even if the octopus, being trapped in a snow globe, could not touch the pieces, the elder squid happily moved them where told. Sadly he never figured out strategies and planning to checkers at all.

"Gramps! We're back!" Marie's voice rung out. Captain Cuttlefish smiled, getting his cane and standing up. Both he and DJ Octavio were confused by what they saw. Marie was carrying a sleeping Maize bridal style in her arms. Octoronia was carrying the egg in her hands, while ECO was just dragging the worshiper along behind her, not caring about any damage the creepy follower suffered.

"Err… good job, squiddos?" Captain Cuttlefish unsurely congratulated them.

"Did something go wrong?" he added, seeing Marie carefully place the yellow inkling on the ground, noticing that some drool had gotten on her disguise. She tried to brush it off, greatly annoyed by it. Her disguise already was covered in purple ink splotches and oil residue. She did not need it any more damaged than it already was.

"No more than the usual. As in everything," the Squid Sister answered, Octoronia approaching DJ Octavio and holding the egg.

"…we helped them get the item," she flatly stated, DJ Octavio looking her over. She rung some bells, oddly, but he never recalled recruiting her into his army before, but he could sense the hatred emanating from her.

"Yes… this is the item that my old army confiscated from those followers. However from what my researchers told me when I had them look at it, this item is thousands of years old," DJ Octavio exclaimed. He had not just blindly tossed it into his hideaway entirely out of fear. He had actually had this egg inspected, and reports showed that it was ancient.

"…was one of those researchers named Octyn?" Octoronia requested an honest answer, referring to her now deceased father. If the timeline was correct, her father was still a part of the Octarian Research Division and should have had a hand in the egg's examination.

"Indeed… I presume you were his little blobbie?" the former army leader claimed.

"Yeah," Octoronia nodded. She was always the pride of her father's heart. She never knew her mother, and once she started showing an interest in inventing of her own, which led to ECO's creation, her father could not have been any prouder. Marie was updating her grandfather on what had occurred during the mission, while Maize continued sleeping. ECO was tying up the worshiper so he would not escape, in case he woke up and made an effort to escape.

"…I have nothing I can say, because from here on, you want to hear things like 'I'm so sorry', and 'I had no idea', specific things like that…" DJ Octavio regained that very angry intense gaze he always had that could pierce anyone.

"But I am not a different octopus than I was before, and I have no regrets for anything I do," he added. That seemed to make Octoronia snap as she raised one of her legs.

"Uh oh," Octavio's snow globe got kicked hard, being knocked off the pedestal, sending the ball of mostly plexiglass crashing onto the ground, toppling and rattling along. She had actually wound up kicking it toward the slumbering Maize, watching it crash into him. She covered her mouth in shock at what she had just done, and everyone was looking at her.

"I'm glad I invested in plexiglass…" Captain Cuttlefish sighed, going over and picking up DJ Octavio's snow globe. The octopus inside was upside down, his eyes spinning. The inventor octoling was holding her leg in pain.

"Ow…" Maize groaned in pain as he sat up with a bruise on the side of his face, seeing everyone else, "H-hey… what happened?"

"You blacked out," Marie simply stated before helping him up, trying to make sure he was alright. He was able to stand on his own. That hard hit had finally woke him up, he fixed his glasses tiredly.

"I'm sorry, guys… I'm leaving. ECO, help them out with whatever they need, please," Octoronia said, handing the ancient egg over to Marie before she stormed off. Anger and sadness was surging through her heart. ECO felt horrible seeing how wound up that Octavio got her sister, but let her go just so she could calm down.

"What should we do with this egg and the worshiper we captured? I mean, if it's as old as Octavio says, then are you sure this is an egg anymore? It practically looks like a rock already," Marie requested, wanting to know what they should do. She had no idea on how they should handle this and did have a little guilt for taking someone prisoner. Maize fixed his glasses, coming over and taking the egg from Marie. That same fear emerged once again in him, he did his best to suppress it and not let it take over.

"…this shouldn't be near Bondi. I'll handle watching it," Maize volunteered not, wanting to let this egg anywhere near Callie or her son.

"Oooooogghhh…" a long painful moan rung out. They looked at the robed figure who awakened to find out his hands and feet were tied up. ECO came over and ripped his black and white hood off his head. What they found underneath was shocking.

"Well, this is a sight for my old sore eyes," Captain Cuttlefish admitted. There was a purple inkling underneath the robes. However the squid had no tentacles, but just the small stubs like the one Maize had from his one tentacle being bitten off. But to make matters even more disturbing, all three of the big sharp teeth, which were normally in the mouths of all squids, were gone, leaving only the tiny teeth behind in his mouth.

"I think I'm gonna lose my lunch," ECO claimed.

"Do robots have lunch?" Marie quirked, wondering if the mechanical octoling even ate anything or had the need to.

"I'm tied up again?! That's the third time this week!" the angry purple squid shouted, flopping around in his bindings. Maize kept the egg close, not wanting to lose it. He watched Agent 5 go over and help prop the purple squid up against a nearby wall.

"Are… are you alright?" Marie hesitantly asked, wondering why this young squid was missing all the features that any squid normally had. With no tentacles, this meant he no longer could move around in his squid form, and without big sharp teeth, a lot of foods became unavailable to him to be consumed, since the smaller teeth were not nearly as strong.

"What are you talking about?! I'm tied up, and I got shot by my fellow worshipers! I'm not alright at all!" he continued shouting. Most of the oil had come off of him while being dragged along. ECO grabbed his head.

"Calm down or else we'll gag you," she ordered. He huffed, seeming to calm down to the situation.

"Who are you?" Maize asked the first question of probably a hundred. The worshiper had a smirk.

"I'm Violet… just Violet. I have no last or middle name," he answered, introducing himself as Violet, the worshiper of this anonymous entity that was starting to sound even more threatening each time the Special Squid Services heard of this entity.

"What happened to your tentacles?" Marie wanted to know. She could not live with herself if she had both of her tentacles gone. Her friend already was crippled in squid form. She hated to imagine what it was like not being able to put the form to use at all.

"And your large teeth?" ECO added.

"All of us have no big teeth or tentacles," Violet responded. This confused them all. Captain Cuttlefish was trying to make sure DJ Octavio was alright, though Octoronia snapping had sadly ruined their game of checkers.

"So… you're a bunch of injured worshipers?" Maize questioned. It sounded like Cornell all over again, offering pain eliminating medicine to crippled inklings for free labor, and it still sounded horrible.

"We're not injured! All of us volunteer to have our tentacles cut off and our teeth ripped out. It proves our dedication to them," Violet rambled. Marie now felt sick to her stomach. ECO's chest light turned yellow in surprise. Maize had no idea how to take this other than declaring it insane. Letting someone rip out any inkling's strongest teeth and cut off a few of his limbs, and to know that this was an entire cult's doing, was horrifying.

"Wh-what? Who? Why would you do it anyway? There is nothing worth entire body parts! You can't even move anymore as a squid…" the Squid Sister stuttered. The purple squid shook his head and gained an eerie grin.

"That is the whole idea! I resent being a squid! To this day, I am no squid! I'm a human!"


	42. Fulfilment

**Authors Note: I hope you enjoy the chapter! Please leave a review on what you have thought about it! Have a good day, and take care!**

A burst of shock surged around everyone over what they just heard from the worshiper. Not only had he willingly allowed his big teeth to be ripped from his mouth and his tentacles to be cut from his head, but he refused to accept his species as a squid, and kept insisting he was human. Imagining other inklings and octolings thinking or doing the same thing was more worrying for them all, but if they all truly desired to be humans, that somewhat made things a little creepier. Humans were a race that went extinct hundreds of years ago after a great disaster flooded the world. No one knew what this disaster was, but no one had been able to survive the flood, and when water began to vanish and more land became available, squids and octopi evolved, and inevitably the Great Turf War followed a couple of hundred years later.

"I've never felt so sorry for someone before…" Marie stated. She wondered if the entity that these followers worshiped had somehow come up with a complex lie to convince all of the followers into doing this, but it was the worst crime above any that they had witnessed, and they had no idea how to handle this. The situation was falling way out of the Special Squid Service's control, but they had to keep up their best effort. This was a life or death situation for a lot of lives, and DJ Octavio's claims to that had been proven true by the time these odd worshipers had appeared.

"What should we do with him? It's getting late," Maize asked what to do with Violet he still had the ancient egg in the glass container under his arm. ECO was trying to think on what to do, the three agents brainstorming. No one wanted to release him, and nobody wanted to consider taking him to their homes to keep him under their watch.

"Don't you worry, squiddos. I can watch Octavio and this Violet guy both at once. It'd be nice to have another checkers opponent," Captain Cuttlefish happily commented. DJ Octavio looked annoyed, but he was glad there was someone else who could undergo the torture of how simple the board games are, since the old inkling was not much of a challenge.

"I can hear you!" Violet screamed from the wall he was tied up beside, but his voice was ignored.

"Gramps, you call me if things look shady, alright?" Marie requested. Her grandfather chuckled patting her head.

"Marie, your grandpa isn't as frail as he looks to be," Captain Cuttlefish claimed. The white inkling sighed, trying to calm down, aware her grandfather was the one who taught her some basics to hand to hand combat, but she doubted he could replicate the same attacks.

"I'm heading home. You have a good night," Marie bid Maize and ECO goodnight.

"You take care," Maize told her goodnight. The robotic octoling waved, watching the Squid Sister leave. Both she and Maize were aware that Marie was desperate to change into clean clothes, and there was a good chance that the disguise was going to be trashed.

"I'll take this little guy home," Agent 3 said while holding the egg. His glasses were covered in ink, and were desperately in need of cleaning. He could only see through the right lens. He had a good few scratches and bruises to take care of on top of that, as well as his concerns of his splatterscope being damaged.

"Ehh? Little guy?" ECO quirked confusedly. All she saw was a rocky egg. If it was really thousands of years old, then she doubted there was anything inside the egg that could have survived, if the egg itself was even an egg at all.

"Well… it's still an egg, and in one of the sunken sea scrolls, I read that squishies used to hatch from eggs before squids evolved," Maize responded with his current thought process. There was some peculiar reason why this egg did not hatch, and he was expecting it to be a squishie inside. The mechanical octoling's chest light was blank as she put a hand on her head.

"I… I can't tell if it's adorable how you think, or if you have a low IQ," she admitted. It was so confusing. She sighed, her chest light changing to purple as she smiled.

"But I'll lean toward adorable," she decided. She saw no harm in this since he was watching over the egg anyway. Violet was lying on the floor, having slid off the wall he was propped up against. It was getting late, though Maize could tell she had something on her mind.

"Hey, if you're worried about Octoronia, don't be. I'm sure she'll be fine," Maize reassured, thinking that it was a good thing that Octoronia had lashed out at DJ Octavio like that. It was good to get that built up anger out of her system. He could only guess how long she had kept it pent up.

"No, it's not that. I know she'll be fine. But she will probably lock herself up in the workshop all night…" ECO said, but insisted that was not what was on her mind. She looked at his splatterscope, looking over the damage it took from all of that fighting.

"It's just… can I come with you? I'd like to fix your splatterscope," the mechanical octoling nervously requested. Maize paused for a moment, looking at his charger. He did not want to tell her to go home, under the risk of upsetting her.

"Err… sure, I guess. You can also help me find ways to try and hatch this little guy," Maize agreed to let her come to his home for the night, appreciative of his close friend for wanting to take care of his weapon, but it was easy to tell she was more concerned about him, although she looked a little annoyed at how determined Maize was wishing to hatch this egg. But one thing for sure, he needed to have a talk with her, too. Agent 3 left with Agent 5 shortly after with the egg's case under his arm, leaving Captain Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio alone with Violet, hoping things would be alright with the elders watching over the slightly creepy worshiper.

Marie had made it all the way back to her apartment complex back in Flounder Heights, tired and exhausted. Once she disembarked the elevator, she took her hat off her head, groaning, letting her tentacles loose carelessly. She approached her door, unlocking it and entering into her apartment.

"Callie! I'm home…" Marie called out closing the door behind her. She heard the sound of the shower running from down the hall. She guessed her cousin was cleaning up. And just when Marie wanted to just go straight to the bathroom to clean all this off her disguise.

"Hm?" Marie heard a whine, rubbing her head. She tossed her hat aside, letting it carelessly fall to the side of the living room. She went to the nursery where the noise came from. She approached the crib, seeing the small squishie lying inside it, awake.

"Hey, Bondi. You wake up from a nap?" Marie greeted the squishie, seeing him reaching toward her and wanting to be held.

"Squee…" Bondi sniffled. The Squid Sister gained a small smile, reaching down and picking Bondi up out of his crib, cradling him into her arms. The two month old squid snuggled into her chest. She felt a lot of joy seeing how calm he became in her arms. He was a very content squishie, all things considered.

"You're so adorable, Bondi… I know I wasn't happy when Callie adopted you at first… but things changed fast on that. I can't see things being the same around here without you," Marie spoke to Bondi, acting like this was a little story telling session to entertain the squishie.

"Squeep?" he could only say, barely understanding his aunt.

"Me and your mom love you a lot. I wanted to have a squishie too, but Maize kind of talked me out of it and insisted I think on it more… so in a month, if I haven't changed my mind, he'll be helping me have a squishie," Marie continued. However when she said it aloud, she felt silly for talking about this to Bondi, but he seemed all too happy to just have her holding him.

"Ma-Marie?" that familiar voice chimed. Agent 2 instantly gained a blush across her face and gulped.

"How did I know you'd get me in trouble somehow?" Marie murmured. Bondi giggled at how silly her face looked. She turned around with him in her arms, seeing Callie standing there, having cut her shower short upon hearing Bondi crying from waking up from his nap.

"Hey C-Callie…" Marie nervously greeted her cousin, seeing her wearing her usual outfit, though her tentacles weren't done up into their usual bow.

"…you wanted to have a squishie?" Callie asked, wanting to know if she was telling the truth. Confessing thoughts to a newborn squid was probably not the white inkling's best decision. That was just what she got from wanting to confide her thoughts in the squishie.

"Yeah… I did… and I kind of still want to," Marie answered while handing Bondi over to his mother. The atmosphere of the room did get a little more awkward. The squishie cuddled into his mother, happy to see her again, even if she had only been gone for a few minutes.

"And Maize is the one you decide to have be the father? Oh gosh, are you pregnant?" Callie questioned, aware of how easy it was to get Agent 3 to agree to help them with anything, but this sounded bit insane. That did not help her cousin's embarrassment.

"N-no! I agreed to wait a month before I decide!" Marie quickly defended herself. This relieved her cousin slightly.

"I don't think grandpa would be too happy with Maize if you were pregnant with his squishie… but I still gotta ask, why do you want to have a squishie?" Callie questioned. She was afraid that her cousin was jealous of Bondi, but Maize had reassured her otherwise over the phone.

"I… I feel unfulfilled ever since you got Bondi. I started to realize how little I've accomplished in my personal life. Sure, I'm rich and famous and now an agent on a great service, helping every inkling and octoling we can… but I just still feel empty," Marie admitted, explaining to her cousin how she felt inside, the same way she had to Maize. Callie approached her.

"Marie… you're one of the only reasons I feel fulfilled in my life," the black inkling stated.

"What do you mean?" Marie questioned in confusion, wondering if her cousin was just trying to cheer her up.

"Marie, you remember that competition that first started our road to success? We spent days practicing our singing, and when we got on stage, I froze up. The only thing that kept me calm was you," Callie reminded her of the first competition they had one with their singing that had started the Squid Sisters' popularity on the road to fame. Sadly, the black inkling's stage fright had been affecting her ever since then, and she always looked to her cousin for comfort on the stage.

"I would have never made it this far without you. I love you, grandpa and Bondi a lot, and I don't know how I would live without any of you," Callie finished her exclamation. She always felt fulfilled in her life as long as she had her cousin alongside her. The two always synced up perfectly, aside from their fights. Marie stared at her, unsure what to say.

"…oh, Callie… I'm sorry for being so selfish," Marie sniffled, and then she hugged her cousin. Bondi got a bit squished between the two, giggling at the embrace which he saw as a fun little game. Marie felt horrible like she had taken her cousin for granted. She never realized it until now. The white inkling had been thinking she had lost her cousin's love and care.

"Hey, you weren't being selfish at all… and if you still want to have a squishie in a month, then I'll be there to help," Callie reassured with a smile.

"Squee!" Bondi chimed. Marie gave a smile back, glad to have her cousin's support on the matter. But Callie had one more thing she was wondering about on her mind, and Marie could guess what it was.

"So… do you… y'know, love Maize?" Callie quirked. Once again, Marie was embarrassed as she buried her face in her hands.

"No… yes… I don't know… can we please just move on? I have a lot I need to fill you in about," Marie tried to brush the topic aside. She had to fill Callie in about the crazy cultists' efforts and all that had occurred. She felt silly for getting caught up in this conversation, but she was glad they had it. Now they had to be prepared for anything. This was a huge mission to the Special Squid Services, and it seemed like every agent available was going to get involved.


	43. Heart to Heart

It was around eight in the evening, and as of this hour, Maize was in his home. He had his laptop set up in the kitchen, and he was sitting in front of it. Meanwhile in the back of his kitchen, ECO was sitting at the table, taking apart his splatterscope. The pieces were scattered around the table beside her. Also on the table was the rocklike egg still in its glass case.

"And… these squids and octopi are desperate to be humans?" Fulvous's voice chimed.

"They sound really mad, even more than our dad," Fallow spoke up. Maize was talking to Agent 6 and Agent 7 over webcam, using a software called 'Skipper'. It was not the best, but it worked efficiently. Agent 3 had been explaining everything to them that had occurred out of warning, though once again, Maize realized that he was still the only boy in all of the Special Squid Services. It was certainly an odd coincidence, but he did not mind. He just found it a little awkward.

"I don't see the perk of being human. But I want you two to stay on your toes anyway, in case," Maize requested, wanting them to be prepared in case something went crazy by surprise. These worshipers wanted the egg for a reason. If it was this sacred item they wanted, then it sure did not look anything special.

"You know I will bro! We'll all be ready for the show!" Fallow rhymed gleefully. She sounded too excited and happy to know that a lot of lives in both Inkopolis and Mollusk Metropolis were on the line. However they then saw in Maize's cam, a small fire burst out from some of his splatterscopes parts messing up from afar. ECO just grabbed a nearby cup of water and splashed it on the fire with little care before tossing the cup away.

"Sorry. Sometimes that happens," the mechanical octoling apologized. The yellow squid sighed, hoping this weapon repair did not run the risk of burning his house down.

"Okay, well… I'm gonna go see what I can do with this egg. You two take care," Maize bid his sister and friend goodnight. They said the same to him before he closed the laptop. He got up and approached Agent 5.

"How goes the repair?" the yellow inkling requested, hearing his mechanical friend sigh in annoyance as she laid back in the chair, her emotional cortex's light glowing purple.

"Horrible. You somehow trashed two important parts to the splatterscope. I can fix it, but I don't know how you managed to do this," ECO claimed in confusion. It was astounding how much harm he had done to the charger, but she knew that he was a hard fighter and sometimes he had no choice but to use the weapon as anything but its intended purpose. He had other chargers and all of the mementos he received from his missions that contained a few weapons, but he truly would want to only use a splatterscope as long as he could.

"Sorry. Everything's been a little crazy lately," Maize apologized as he went over to one of the kitchen drawers, beginning to rummage around through it until he pulled out a small claw hammer from it. He picked up the glass case the egg was in and rested it in the nearby trash can.

"What are you planning to do with th-" ECO tried to finish when she saw him bash the top of the glass case, breaking the case into tiny shards. Maize put the hammer on the counter before he reached in and pulled out the egg. It had blue stripes in random patterns on it, though it still felt like a solid rock when being held. He felt an overwhelming fear course through his body. It was far worse without the case to house the egg. His bare skin touching it made him feel like he was terrified, but he suppressed that fear, taking in a breath to calm down.

"…you know, you probably could have just pulled the case off," ECO stated, seeing him come over and sit by the table, resting the egg on it. At least it somehow was able to stay upright on its own.

"I figured this would be quicker," Maize claimed while poking the egg. He had no idea where to begin with this. He wanted to still attempt to hatch it, even if he had minimal ideas about how eggs hatched or what they needed. This egg seemed more confusing than anything.

"Hmm… it just needs to be warmed like it was in an incubator… right?" the yellow boy asked, seeing a look on his robotic friend's face that gave her answer.

"What do you mean? This is not a chicken egg! It's thousands of years old! It's probably not even an egg, but a rock that got oddly colored by the minerals in the ground," ECO tried to restate her disbelief. She refused to see this as an egg. Scientifically, it made no sense for something to survive thousands of years or even take that long to hatch. If there was anything in that egg, it was long since deceased. Maize did not seem detoured by her outburst, however. There was one thing they both agreed on. Somehow or someway, this egg filled whoever held it with overwhelming terror and despair, and for some reason, those squids and octolings who were desperate to be humans craved for it.

"You don't know until you try, right?" Maize responded. ECO could not tell if he was optimistic or had a low intelligence level. But she suspected both. She was just amazed at how he still thought there might be a squishie in the egg. Agent 3 took notice of her purple chest light, which had been like this ever since she came to his house. He decided it was now or never to talk.

"Uh… you didn't want to come to my house just to fix my splatterscope, did you?" the yellow inkling tried to start while adjusting his glasses after cleaning the ink off it, and thankfully there was no permanent damage to it. The robotic octoling looked at him nervously.

"…Yeah… I don't hide it too well, do I?" ECO responded honestly, putting down two pieces of the splatterscope back with the other dozen parts lying all over the kitchen table. He put a hand on her shoulder, having a concerned look on him.

"You're in love with me… are you?" he jumped straight to the point. He saw her chest light change to a mix of pink and purple. She was embarrassed, but she could not deny it.

"Yes… who told you?" ECO requested while standing up. He thought that being honest here would be the best route to take. He had promised Agent 5's sister that he would work everything out.

"Octoronia told me you had a crush on me. She also told me about your last boyfriend," Maize added. ECO seemed ashamed of being reminded of her past. The last boy she fell in love with did take huge advantage of her, and she had been oblivious to it all along. It took Octoronia practically torturing the poor octoling to get him to leave ECO alone.

"I'm sorry. I can't help who I fall for," ECO apologized, the atmosphere beginning to feel tense. He realized this conversation was not going anywhere if he waited for her to try and continue it.

"Why me, though? I really have to ask, why did you fall in love with me? I'm not strong, smart, or really anything special," Maize requested to know. If she had any clue anyway. He did not want to go questioning her emotional cortex's decisions, as he thought it would be insulting to her, or would it be a compliment to say she had great programming? He was not in the mood to dive into a whole deep thought process of wondering if robots even felt love. All he knew was that she loved him, and he was not going to think any harder than that.

"I… you're very special, Maize… not just to me, but to everyone you meet," ECO countered now. He was more lost than before. Maize felt like he lost control of this conversation in seconds. He watched the mechanical octoling take his glasses off his face, looking into those innocent eyes of his.

"You always do everything you can to make everyone happy. You don't hesitate to put others before yourself, and you don't care what is in the way. You always stay focused and quick on your feet," ECO exclaimed. Maize could see her fine without his glasses, because she was so close to him, but he wondered if he really was like that. The quick on his feet comment, he found accurate, because nothing seemed simple anymore. He always had to stay on his toes, and be prepared for anything crazy that was bound to happen.

"I've never seen someone so strongly driven by something so small," ECO added to the list of reasons why she liked him. She was referring to his promises, the ones he had taken up as his decision for the Dagenhart tradition, all because his mother had gone somewhere unknown, and he wanted to keep her close in his own way. ECO, however seemed to be hiding another reason for her crush on him.

"Every person I cheer up and help… every Dagenhart had to pick what they wanted their tradition to be to help change the world. I chose to do it with my promises, and each one I make… well, my promises fill me with determination!" Maize continued his honest answers. His eyes shimmered with the strong determination that he unintentionally embodied.

"…you're so cheesy," ECO commented, almost lost for words. Maize sighed once again from being called cheesy by another friend. He wondered if being cheesy was a bad thing. However he was starting to realize how off topic this conversation was going.

"Look, ECO… you're a great friend. I don't care that you're a robot or not, but… I really don't know how it would work," Maize informed her, leaving out the fact that he was recently divorced from a marriage he was not even interested in. He saw that chest light of hers stay purple. He was starting to wonder if she had truly told him everything.

"…my heart…" she muttered.

"Huh? …your emotional cortex?" the inkling recalled that her cortex was her heart, and he did not need to be reminded of the time he had to fiddle with it to reactivate her.

"Maize… you treat me like I'm alive. You treat me like I'm a real octarian. Ever since we met, you've acted like I have not one robotic part at all, even after you touched my heart. That's why I stood up for you back when you thought you were a murderer," ECO sniffled. She looked ready to cry. Maize was surprised that she had that as a feature. He saw her chest light turn a mixed color of blue and green. He hated recalling those times where he thought he had killed Cyan, but Maize was still thankful she did that for him, even if no other squid beyond Fulvous was actually accusing him of being a murderer.

"Well, I mean… why wouldn't I? …to me, you're not a robot. You're alive. After all, you're ECO the octarian," Maize spoke his true thoughts. He had that same thought process ever since he had met her, and he had no other way to phrase it than that. Agent 3 got pulled into a tight hug by Agent 5. He heard her sobbing, and he could feel his shoulder get slightly damper. He let out a sigh. This was not getting anywhere. He questioned if it really was that important how others saw her.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to make you cry. You can spend the night here if you want," Maize apologized, feeling horrible to have made her cry.

"N-no… I'm not sad… I'm happy… you make me feel complete," ECO admitted, grateful for his offer, thinking it would be best to spend the night here instead of walking all the way back to Mollusk Metropolis. Not being able to turn into an octopus at her own will was a problem.

"…Look, ECO… I'll think on this, alright?" Maize agreed to consider the thought of a relationship. He could not deny that some feelings were in return, but he still was not interested in starting a relationship. He was not actively pursuing one, but if he had the chance for one, then he was going to consider it. The main problem to this however, was he had feelings for someone else entirely.

"Thank you, Maize…" ECO said as their embrace was broken. She returned his glasses to him. He smiled, putting them back on his face. The two looked at the egg that still rested on the table. No matter how old it was, Maize was going to make an effort to try and hatch it, no matter what he was told. ECO was planning to try and visit often to keep an eye out on him in case more of these odd cult followers appeared. The two had a long night ahead of them. With the awkward conversation dealt with, ECO had to fix his splatterscope, and Maize was going to try anything to try and hatch this rock of an egg.


	44. Hatch

It had been a week since everything had transpired. The agents of Special Squid Services had captured the cultist Violet. Today, Maize was half asleep in the living room of his own home at one in the morning, and right beside him on the coffee table was the very egg that had the blue patterns on it. Maize was in his pajamas, which were blank white, but had a power star on the front of his shirt.

"Alright… I'm very close to conceding now…" Maize muttered as he fell off the couch. He had tried nearly everything he could think of to hatch this egg. He had wrapped it in a heating blanket and set it to max. He had sat on it for an hour before that hurt too much to stand. He tried just keeping it comfortable on pillows for a day, but that did not work. Maize otherwise carried the egg everywhere he went to; turf wars, on missions with friends, or whenever he was simply running errands.

"Maize, are you alright?" he heard from the hallway. He turned to see ECO, who was wearing purple pajamas that had random flower patterns on it. Her cortex light was blue out of concern for her friend. So had been staying every other night and coming over to visit and make sure he was not in any danger. So far no more of the cultists who desperately wanted to be human had attempted anything shifty for the egg. He pulled himself back up onto the couch.

"Yeah… still trying to get this little guy to hatch," Maize nodded, tapping a finger on the egg. The usual problem of the egg instilling fear into those that touched it had begun to vanish for the yellow squid, mostly because he handled it all the time and lately had rarely let it out of his touch. ECO sighed, having had repaired his splatterscope the other day, which was now lying by the front door along with her slather blaster, and their two ink tanks. Every night the mechanical octoling stayed, she was given the only bed in the home. It made her feel bad how often he slept on the couch because of her.

"You can have your bed tonight, if you want," ECO offered, coming over to him and sitting down beside him on the couch. The room was entirely dark, besides a nightlight that was in the shape of a seashell that was on the side of a wall. When Agent 5 asked him why he had a nightlight for his age, all Agent 3 told her was to not judge him over it.

"Uh-uh. You're the guest. You need your rest anyway, considering how often you're on guard lately," Maize retorted, appreciative of his close friend playing bodyguard, but he understood her concern. Callie and Marie had been keeping a lot more contact with their grandfather. Fallow had mysteriously vanished, claiming she wanted to prepare for the worst in case, which was odd to Maize, but he knew his sister would do anything to help out if she could. He knew she will be fine.

"…what are you going to do to it next?" ECO asked as the two just sat quietly. It was a full moon tonight, and it did look pretty, especially surrounded by all the stars in the night sky. Inkopolis did not really have much light pollution, so the night sky was beautiful to watch.

"…I'unno. Paint it in ink?" Maize joked. He had still been thinking hard on this whole deal with ECO. He was considering whether or not to start a relationship with her. The more he thought about the two of them, the more his thoughts drifted to Marie. He wondered what ECO had been telling Octoronia each time she was out all night, if she told her sister anything at all. ECO seemed to gain a small smile from hearing him say that.

"That actually sounds like a good idea," ECO giggled. Maize quirked an eyebrow, grabbing his glasses off the nearby table and putting them on his face. He sat up, seeing her go over and grab their two ink tanks. She brought them over and set them on the table beside the egg. She opened the tops off the ink tanks, seeing the respective yellow and purple ink within it. He watched her dip a few fingers into her ink tank.

"Oh, wow… I haven't done this since I was a tiny squirt!" Maize exclaimed, understanding ECO's idea of finger painting, and for some reason, the mere thought of doing this sent the inner young squid inside him, with a spark of insane joy. Maize dunked his entire hand into the yellow ink, his robotic friend surprised by it. She knew there was going to be a mess to clean up. The two took the purple and yellow ink, beginning to use their hands to paint the rock of an egg, covering it in various shapes and patterns.

"Huh?" Maize quirked an eyebrow. He could have sworn he saw the blue parts of the egg change color. It strangely went from blue to yellow to purple marks.

"Did you see that?" he asked. ECO looked confused, but then she had a grin, throwing some of the ink on her hand at him. Some of it splattered onto the side of his face, and it barely stung. He began laughing before returning the favor, tossing yellow ink at her with his hand.

"Consider this a mini turf war!" Maize laughed as the two were using only their hands to throw ink. It was a lot of fun. ECO had taken cover behind the kitchen counter with her purple ink tank, tossing as much as she could back, splattering the carpet and the table. They ignored the egg, leaving it covered in ink paint. Maize threw another blob of ink, watching it splash onto his wall. At this point the yellow squid had given up caring about his home's cleanliness. He could clean the ink out later, with the right tools. He tossed another ball of the yellow ink, and some of it hit ECO's metallic tentacles

"Hah! Lucky shot!" ECO laughed. But as the two continued playing, the egg on the table was slowly beginning to shake a little. Cracks ripped from the top of the stone, running down the entire egg itself. As a short time passed, the egg began to break and crack, bits and pieces falling off and clattering onto the ink covered floor as its colors changed to blank grey.

"Hey, hold on a sec!" Maize called out to stop the mini turf war. When he turned around, he noticed the scrambled egg. Shards of it were on the floor and on his coffee table, aside from the lower half of the egg. When he looked inside it, there were three red spheres in it that seemed to resemble ruby crystals.

"Did we break it?" ECO asked while coming out from behind her defense. The two were both covered in yellow and purple ink. Maize knew this whole place was a mess, but he did not mind. He could clean the ink out later. He picked up the three ruby spheres in confusion.

"I don't think so… but I sure don't see a squishie in this egg," the yellow squid said, wondering if all this egg housed were these gems. If so, he saw no reason why those cultists would want it, though as he held the three in his hand, something suddenly grabbed his hand and wrapped around it, looking like a bubble of water.

"Gah! Wh-what is this?!" Agent 3 fell back in shock as the three ruby spheres got taken from his grasp before his hand was released. ECO and Maize looked at what had done that. It looked to have come from under the sofa.

"Let's find out," ECO hummed, grabbing the couch and flipping it upwards. He forgot how strong she was, but he sighed. Another mess he was going to have to clean up. However, what the two saw under the couch was puzzling. There was a very tiny creature there, which looked like a squid, but made completely out of water. The three ruby gems were inside its body, one in its chest and the other two in its arms.

"Hey! There was a squishie in there!" Maize exclaimed, picking up the tiny squid. As he held it, it felt like he was holding his hands under the faucet of a sink. He was amazed that there was no water spilling onto the floor.

"Maize… I don't think squishies are born with limbs," ECO reminded him. This thing looked like a mini inkling that was just lacking the long tentacle hair, and it seemed able to stretch and move its body a lot more than a usual squishie, and it did have arms and legs. In fact it did not even look like a normal squishie. At least it did not seem to care about being held by him.

"So… what do we do with him?" Maize asked, the robotic octoling seeing the ruby spheres just floating harmlessly within the watery squid's body. When the yellow inkling tried to poke at one, his hand just got forced out. His mechanical friend tried to think up what to do with it.

"Uh… I have no idea what water squids require," ECO stated, but then they were starting to notice that the water squid creature had an odd light glow around it, as if those ruby spheres within it were emanating light-like life.

"Maybe Fulvous would know?" Maize suggested. His robotic friend saw no reason to not try and call Agent 7 up. They had to inform the others anyway, but it was safe to assume everyone else was fast asleep. This week had been quite tiring, considering all the missions that had been done throughout the week. It was around two in the morning, but this was all too important to ignore. They had to try and get in contact with someone to try and figure out what was going on with this weird thing. Maize was happy that the creature did not fill him with fear like the egg did to everyone. That was a huge improvement.

At Octo Valley, Captain Cuttlefish had been doing his best to stay on guard. It was very late, yet the darkness was not much to the elder. He napped randomly throughout the day, so it was rare that he was out of energy. There were two lanterns lit with small fires burning within them, dangling from ropes attached to pipes, illuminating a tiny area.

"Nooo… no more… I want to sleep," Violet's groggy voice whined.

"Eh? Come on, squiddo. You've beaten me nine times in a row. Why would ya stop a win streak?" Captain Cuttlefish responded.

"For the twentieth time, I am not a squid!" Violet screamed before falling out of his chair again. That was probably the twentieth time in the last few hours that this also happened. Being unable to move his feet at all or his arms did limit his movement.

"Well, consider this our method of torture until you talk," DJ Octavio commented from his snow globe. When he suggested sleep deprivation for their torture method, he did not anticipate another long session of board games to be the main way to keep him awake, but it seemed to be working. That and how Captain Cuttlefish had a collection of his old stories in heart and mind to share. The old octopi wanted to cause nothing but harm to Violet, of course, and the elder squid wanted to just try and make him comfy and hope he warmed up overtime. However, neither route had worked so far.

"Hm?" Captain Cuttlefish quirked an eyebrow as huge lights suddenly flicked on and all focused on the three of them. This seemed to irritate Violet even more for half a minute. However he had a big grin afterwards.

"What is the meaning of this?" DJ Octavio growled. They could then notice a few odd figures surrounding the leveled platforms, high or low. The familiar white and black robes were intimidating. Captain Cuttlefish hit speed dial on his cellphone before jamming it into a drawer under the table where their checkers board sat. They all were armed it appeared.

"It has begun. Someone has saved us a lot of trouble. We're here for the start to the revival of the old world," one voice specifically spoke up from high up. They could see someone standing tall, who looked to have a position of authority in the worshipers. He was wearing an entire grey robe that had various colors on it in different patterns, and he had a pair of octoling goggles on his eyes. His cloak was down, exposing his face. It looked like just a regular grey haired inkling whose tentacles and big teeth were also removed. He looked all too happy for tonight's hour.

"Si-sir Taupe! It's an honor to be in your presence!" Violet happily greeted the leader of this cult. But Taupe raised his hand up as if to order silence.

"Silence, brother. We're aware that you failed our master and allowed our fellows to be splattered with little care… forgiveness is a hard thing to force. You will be taken to the facility after we're done," Taupe retorted, sounding merciless, or at the very least, uncaring.

"So whadd'ya want with us then, squiddy? If ya ain't here for your little friend, then what?" the elder squid requested. He was going to be civil about this if he could. After all, the group of worshipers seemed very polite about announcing themselves before attacking, as though they preferred to speak first. But then again, that might be a side effect of his old age wanting to hope that the next generation was getting better by the day.

"…Old man, you may enjoy insulting us. But we are aware of your little group, the Special Squid Services. Many rumors about them have flooded throughout Mollusk Metropolis and Inkopolis," Taupe claimed. Those two names, squiddy or squiddo, were apparently a major offensive term to the cult that desired to be human.

"We are aware of five of the agents, who are members of this group of fools pretending to be heroes. One of which has been apprehended from Mollusk Metropolis already," the leader of this group of followers declared. Captain Cuttlefish grew a glare so furious that it could rival DJ Octavio's. Imagining his grandsquids in danger, or his great grandsquid being threatened, drove him over the edge. Violet seemed upset to know he was being sacked from the cult.

"Well, Octavio… you think you're up to trying to fight?" Captain Cuttlefish asked. The angry octopus nodded, agreeing. He was not going to sit idly by and let these insane lunatics go on a murderous rampage, if that was what they intended to do.

"Certainly!" Octavio agreed. He watched Captain Cuttlefish raise his cane up, tapping on both sides of the snow globe before he tapped the top of it, watching it begin cracking, until the glass shattered. Only Captain Cuttlefish knew the way to break the snow globe, and this was unfortunately a forced time. Once the snow globe was broken, the water poured out onto the ground, DJ Octavio did something he rarely did before he had been captured.

"Father Time has been a lot kinder to me than he has been to you," DJ Octavio changed from his octopus form, growing taller and changing into his human form. He was wearing his usual gold samurai helmet, and he was dawning a red Japanese garb with white sleeves. He had a slight beard, with a small wasabi stick in his mouth like it was a toothpick, his arms had the same green scars on them. Octavio disliked changing into his human form for some unknown reason, but now was the time to do it whether he liked it or not. He got ready, seeing Taupe glare down at them. Both Octavio and Captain Cuttlefish they were about to be in a huge fight, but they both knew that chances of winning were narrowly slim.


	45. Captured

Captain Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio found themselves in an unfortunate position, surrounded by tens of cultists who were all armed with inkling and octarian weapons and oil-filled ink tanks. The leader of the worshipers, Taupe, looked unfazed by the threat by the two elders. Violet just lay on the floor, upset that he had been kicked out of the cult, all because of his failure to get the egg.

"Two old codgers. Of course you'd be in the way instead of returning to your little board game and letting us work in the shadows. You had to get in our way…" Taupe said flatly as some of the other worshipers began to move into position. DJ Octavio just chuckled. Being in his human form felt like a really nice change, considering how cramped that snow globe was. He would enjoy this fight just for the exercise.

"You struck my entire army with fear years ago. I have a good few bones to pick with you," Octavio stated. Somehow an anonymous cult had filled his former army with fear, but he doubted any of those reformed octarian soldiers of his even had any recollection of the matter anymore.

"Everyone will fight back, no matter what city you attack," Captain Cuttlefish added. They saw Taupe raise his hand, and every one of the worshipers prepared their weapons at once, aside from the ones holding the spotlights to illuminate the area and provide vision. The worshipers planned to deal with the Special Squid Services. Some of the agents had gotten in their way, and they were not going to let it happen again.

"We won't be fighting alone. The world shall be restored by the one we worshipped, and as reward, us humans will rise back to the top like before," Taupe threw his hand down, and just like that, a battle broke loose, and dozens of blasts rung. DJ Octavio rolled his eyes, stomping the side of the table and sending their checkerboard flying. The two elders and the one former cultist took cover, watching the oil splatter and fly all over across the bottom of the table.

"Pinned down and out numbered. Boy, does this bring back memories," Captain Cuttlefish claimed, although the last time he was in this position, he was stuck in a trench with several of his friends, waiting for backup that never arrived.

"I… I can't believe this… I'm going t-to be tossed away in a cell for the rest of m-my life…" Violet was rambling to himself, broken. They could untie him, and he would remain frozen in place. However he did not seem to be talking about jail, as the only crime he may have committed was act like a fool.

"Y'know, if you really want to be useful, you can at least do something right and fight for your freedom," Octavio declared while undoing the bindings from the purple inkling. He presumed the young inkling would do one of two things; either flee for his life or stay and fight against the people who had thrown him under the metaphorical bus over one mistake.

"Darn it…" Captain Cuttlefish groaned. Taupe was gone, as well as a quarter of his troops. Now they were left with an unknown number of cultists shooting at them. Thankfully there did not appear to be many, and this table was able to block the blasts of oil quite fine. Some of the worshipers stopped firing and began to move to change position.

"Alright. It's now or never," Octavio hopped over the table, his feet stomping on the ground as he ran like the wind. None of the inklings or octolings shooting could keep up, their oil splattering on the ground. Captain Cuttlefish began to move out from his hiding spot while the old DJ had their attention. Violet stayed, quivering behind the table. Even with his hands and feet free, he was not able to muster the courage to move. Being treated like a traitor by the people he saw as his family has broken much more than his heart. He had given up so much to join them. His brain was just lost constantly stuck trying to process it all.

One of the cultists was trying to change positions with his splatling gun when DJ Octavio got the jump on him, tackling him from the side. He grabbed him and forced him to lose his grip of the splatling gun.

"Let go, you old fool!" the octoling in the black and white robe demanded. The elder octarian glared, pulling his head back, and then hammering it down at full force. His samurai helmet rung out upon impact with the octoling's skull. It knocked the octoling out instantly, forcing him to let go of the splatling gun. Octavio took the weapon and the oil filled ink tank as well. He squeezed the trigger, beginning to fire the black goo at the other robed figures in his range, hitting several of them with a few shots. One by one, the enemies slipped into unconscious from the oils forced side effects.

"Excuse me," Captain Cuttlefish said as he snuck up behind another one who had a splat charger. He gave them one hard thwack with his cane to the back of their head, and that seemed to be plenty to knock them out. He picked up the charger, squeezing the trigger before beginning to aim it. The elderly squid set his sights on the ones up high. He fired, hitting them with a big burst of the black goo that drained every ounce of their energy instantly and knocked them flat onto their back.

As fast as the fight started, it seemed to be coming to an end, thanks to the combined efforts of Octavio and Captain Cuttlefish. The old squid was approaching the old octoling so they could rest their old bones once more, until they began to hear the sound of feet hitting the ground running. It sounded like a stampede. They were both horrified to see the army approaching. Armed cultists were everywhere. The sight of at least dozens of black and white robes somewhat scared them.

"Cuttlefish… no matter what happens, I want you to know something," Octavio started, gaining the attention of the elder squid easily.

"Eh? If it's an apology for all the war crimes you caused… well… I don't remember half of them anyway," Captain Cuttlefish did not want to hear any apologies right now or regrets being spoken. He was not going to let this be their last moments of life as long as they could fight. He was going to give it his all. The octarian shook his head, as that was not what he wanted to say.

"Thank you, cuttlefish. We were friends before the great turf wars broke out, and somehow, even after everything I had done, you still treat me like nothing ever happened. Thank you for all of this. If I do die, I can at least die knowing it was with my best friend," DJ Octavio finished. However he had made note that a few of the robed figures had taken Violet somewhere. That purple squid had done nothing to fight back at all.

"Heheh… that's what friends are for," Captain Cuttlefish chuckled as they saw the army approach even close. Once again, it was now or never. They both began to charge up their weapons as the elderly duo readied themselves to put up the best fight their old bodies could muster.

Things were normal for this late hour, at least for the Squid Sisters' apartment. Callie and Marie were slumbering away in their bed. They had both wound up going to bed early after a very long day working in their news room. It was quite a busy day. However, they were then awoken by a very loud crying noise.

"Wuh?" Marie sat up, her cousin already getting up out of concern.

"Bondi's never cried like that before…" Callie said worriedly. Her son never cried that loudly just from waking up in the middle of the night. Normally the squishie would only let out a light whine because of his fear of the darkness. She left their bedroom to go make sure Bondi was alright.

"It's a good thing we went to bed early…" Marie groaned, doubting Bondi would let them get anymore sleep tonight. She let her cousin handle it as she went to the living room. However, she noticed something odd. Judd the Cat was not in his normal place where he slept. The couch was empty. As confusing as it was, she shrugged, thinking he had just went out. However, when the white inkling went to the kitchen to get a drink, she got suspicious.

"…no way…" Marie growled. She noticed some odd things in the kitchen, as if to gain her attention as a distraction. On cue, the pantry door behind her flew open. She dodged it, turning to see a black and white robe wearing octoling. Seeing an octarian without their tentacles was a bit scary to her. They were holding an octoling weapon which looked like their version of a charger, and that same oil filled ink tank rested on his back. The weapon had an odd design to it like it was made from spare parts.

"Perk of being in a high cost apartment. Your only security is on the outside," the non-tentacled octoling chuckled, firing a burst of the black ink. She ducked under it, the oil splattering onto the kitchen wall. She then tackled him, throwing the two of them onto the top of their kitchen table, which shattered his ink tank. The black oil bled all over the table and floor.

"Perk to you being an idiot. You aren't good at planning," Marie retorted with smirk before she punched the octarian in the face. She hit him three more times after that, but before she could do it again, she got shot in the side of the face and across her left arm by another burst of oil, which instantly knocked her unconscious. She slumped onto the floor.

"You sure are an idiot, Octumvia," another robed worshiper stated, coming over to help her octarian comrade.

Shortly after waking up, Callie had went to Bondi's room, heading straight for the crib that the squishie was supposed to be in. Her heart sank when she looked into it. The crib was completely empty, all but the baby zapfish toy that Captain Cuttlefish had made for the squishie as a gift.

"Bondi?!" Callie said in fear before she heard the door slam shut. Standing there against the wall was someone in a black and white robe, holding Bondi in his left arm. The squishie looked terrified and upset. Only at first glance, Callie's eyes blazed in fury.

"Let him go!" Callie demanded, taking one step toward him when she saw him pull out a Tentatek splattershot and aim it at the squishie. She instantly froze in place.

"I don't want to hurt a squishie… so save us some trouble and toss this on yourself," the worshiper tossed reached for one of his pockets, pulling out a zip tie which was a cheaper alternative to handcuffs, but they worked quite well. He threw it toward Callie, who then caught it.

"Alright… just don't hurt him…" Callie begged as she slipped the loop of the zip tie onto both of her wrists, and she bit the top part with her teeth and pulled hard, the zip tie pulling her wrists together and binding them tightly. She looked ready to break down into tears from seeing her son in grave danger. The cultist approached her, handing Bondi to his mother. The squishie was very happy to be back in his mother's arms. Callie did her best to hush him, despite the situation. One thing that the black inkling did know was how to break a zip tie. Captain Cuttlefish had taught her and her cousin how to escape multiple types of bindings, but she was going to obey whatever the robed figure commanded, as long as her family was in danger.

"Sorry… come with me," the cultist requested. At least he was being nice, like he did not want to cause any harm to them. Callie followed him down the hall. She was horrified to see Marie unconscious and being restrained as well by the other two robed figures, one of who looked like they were still in pain from the beating he received from the white inkling.

"You! What are your agent numbers?" the girl in the black and white robes demanded. Callie bit her lip, trying to stay calm.

"Hey, lay off'em. We're only here to capture them, not hurt them," the robed figure who had apprehended Callie and Bondi demanded the other one to relax.

"We-we're Agents 1 and 2…" Callie answered, not wanting anymore fighting. She just wanted Marie and Bondi to be safe. She was worried about her grandfather, too. She had no idea what to imagine was occurring to all of their close friends.

"Well, that's three out of five… just two more to go…" the girl in the cloak sounded cheery as she pulled out a notepad and chalking that up.

"Speaking of which, can you tell us where Agents 3 and 5 are?" she requested casually. Callie did not know how to respond, but she was aware that if Maize and ECO were not captured, that meant that Octoronia had been the one apprehended as well. The robed figures seemed to know of only the first five of the agents.

"I-I don't know where Agent 5 is, if she wasn't with her sister! Agent 3 is probably at home asleep…" Callie answered truthfully. She was well aware of what she was doing, but she had no choice but to speak. If the agents all were gathered by these cultists, then they could all come up with a plan on what to do.

"We already searched Agent 3's home, and that turned up nothing..." the octoling in robes spoke up. At least they weren't the typical scary cult. They were more talkative than anything. In fact, they had an odd three stooges atmosphere about them, like these three cultists were great friends.

"Yes, but somehow, that moron figured out the way to hatch the egg. Now we're in trouble with our leader, if we don't find our savior, the Abraliopsis Morsisii!" the girl in the cloak exclaimed before stomping out, leaving the other two goons behind to handle things. Callie kept Bondi close to her chest while the squishie was crying once again. The octoling in robes picked up the unconscious Marie, having cleaned off the oil from her, but she still was out cold.

"Sorry, but… we're going to have to take you to our facility to make sure you agents do not get in the way," the friendly cult member said. Callie was more focused on what the one who had stormed out said. It was something about the abraliopsis morsisii. She had no clue what that was, and if it was what the cultists were worshipping, then she was confused by what they were all planning to do. All Callie could do was hope that the agents who weren't captured yet could rescue them all. If the cultists' plans were to succeed, it would be impossible for any of them to save Inkopolis and Mollusk Metropolis.


	46. Taupes Fury

Maize and ECO had changed out of their pajamas and had made their way a good distance from the yellow squid's home. He had the odd, glowing water creature in his arms, which so far seemed uncaring about being moved or carried.

"And you're sure this is where she lives?" ECO asked, sounding afraid, her cortex light glowing blue in fear. They were in a rough area, as the darkness of the night made it out to be. The homes looked like they weren't well kept, and there were a few squids hanging around outside, giving them some odd looks, but Agent 3 brushed it off as the water squid they were carrying was the very thing drawing attention.

"Yeah, I think so," Maize nodded, patting the head of the watery creature. It did nothing but blink, those three ruby spheres still floating in the same spot. They were approaching one small home, which looked like the best home in the entire neighborhood.

"Come on. I'm sure she won't mind us bugging her," Maize reassured. However the mechanical octoling doubted that. It was nearing four in the morning. The two of them approached the door. She tried to push the doorbell, but there was no noise. She pressed it again five times before they saw the door sling open.

"What?!" Fulvous was standing there, angry. She was wearing a face mask that was not a sight that they expected to see at all. They guessed that this doorbell was louder inside than it was outside.

"I-it's us, Fulvous. Sorry," Maize apologized in fear. The two afraid agents heard Agent 7 sigh, as she knew they were here for one good reason. She just stepped inside, letting those two follow. She had no idea what it was going to be like, but she just knew it was going to take up the rest of the night. They closed the door behind them after coming inside.

"Ohh… this place is so nice," ECO claimed. The living room had a smooth wooden style. The furniture and the entire floor had all been made by hand. Fulvous grabbed a towel, cleaning off her face with it.

"So what's with the… uh… whatever that is?" she quirked, seeing the glowing aqua creature. Maize rested it down on the coffee table of the room, hoping she would not mind.

"We don't know what it is. We were hoping you would," Maize adjusted his splatterscope on his back. Fulvous approached the water squid, touching it with one of her tentacles, seeing it topple over without care onto the coffee table and lean onto it. The water creature was oddly so content that barely moved on its own.

"What makes you think I'd know? It looks like some genetic accident made from a squishie," Fulvous stated. She could not get her tentacle through the water at all, neither did her hands. They could see through the clear entity, but they weren't able to put anything through it. The only thing it allowed into its liquid body was those ruby crystals, but it seemed inactive, like it was waiting for more.

"I don't think genetics make your entire body composed of hydrogen oxide," ECO retorted, trying her best not to go into long detail about how unscientific that possibility was. Maize was more curious about it as well. This one little watery squid was very strange, that much was clear, but they had no idea why the cultists wanted it. It didn't even look like a weapon.

"Your sister sure would have a field day examining it though," Maize chuckled with his usual big smile while brushing his one yellow tentacle aside. ECO could not disagree with that, and in hindsight, her sister seemed like the best option to contact with this matter. They hoped Fulvous would have some clue, but it seemed like a lot of squids had little idea what it was.

"I'll call her up and tell her we're coming," Agent 5 smiled as she pulled out her cellphone, beginning to dial her older sister's phone. She waited for an answer patiently through each ring, while Maize and Fulvous attempted to make the water creature move.

"I wonder if there are more eggs like this," Maize quirked. If there was one, there was bound to be more. He thought the only time this water creature moved was when it first stole the ruby spheres which it had absorbed into its chest and arms.

"Then how come this is the only one to survive?" Fulvous replied. This creature was supposedly thousands of years old, and had survived in that egg the entire time. It was disturbing that this water entity existed during the great catastrophe that wiped out the human race, and the cultists were desperate to have it. They doubted this little thing could have done any harm, considering how much it was lacking in movement.

"No answer… that's weird," ECO muttered. She had called Octoronia three times, and still nothing. Normally one phone call would wake her sibling up. Just then, they saw something odd. They watched the watery squid start glowing slightly brighter before it stood back up, looking to the right where one of the windows was.

"Whoa! It moved!" Maize smirked, astonished, thinking that maybe the little water creature was getting the ability to move on its own. They suddenly saw the window shatter, watching a blast of oil break through and send shards of glass onto the floor as the black goo splattered onto the floor, having only been fired like thrown bricks to break the window.

"Hey! My window!" Fulvous stomped angrily. Maize and ECO watched her run down the hall. It only took a moment before they saw her come back, carrying a bigger splatling gun in her arms and an ink tank filled with orange ink on her back. The yellow squid could safely presume that this was one of her prized weapons, Natascha. Agent 7 appeared completely furious.

"Seriously?!" Maize pulled his splatterscope off his back, adjusting his glasses and getting ready for whatever was going on. More windows began breaking as the oil was splattering onto the floor. ECO backed away from the door, seeing it take a strong bash. She had her slather blaster ready.

"Wh-what's the plan?!" the mechanical octoling requested some form of leadership here from the squid she had a crush on. The watery creature was staying stationary on the coffee table, the ruby spheres within it glowing slightly.

"Splat as many as you can, as quick as you can!" Maize ordered. He watched a set of hands grab onto one of the window sills, trying to pull themselves up. He squeezed the trigger, charging the weapon. He then saw the black and white robed figure pop up, and he immediately let go, firing a fully charged blast of yellow ink which hit the cultist in the chest, sending them flying away from the window, and splattering them instantly when they hit the ground.

"That's the best plan you got?! I like it!" Fulvous laughed as her splatling gun began spinning, just when the front door broke down into pieces. Five armed worshipers stood on the porch, all stunned to see the huge weapon aimed straight for them. Fulvous opened fire, sending rapid shots of orange ink to coat all five of the cultists, all of who had tried various tactics of either running down the steps or returning fire, yet neither of the options gave them enough time to react. All of them were splattered fast, leaving nothing but a giant mess of orange ink covering the front porch.

"I've never gotten this much action outside of a turf war before," ECO stated as they heard the sounds of more windows shattering. Maize was preoccupied, trying to keep the living room secure along with Fulvous. The robotic octoling saw three more of the cultists exiting rooms at the end of the hall. They had this house completely surrounded. She took cover behind a couch before opening fire with her slather blaster, beginning to hit the robed figures with her purple ink, splattering a few. They were attempting to return fire, as bursts of the oil flew through the air and splattered everywhere that the agents' ink was not.

"I don't mean to alarm you guys, but… we're kind of losing ground!" Fulvous stated while taking a step back, firing more with her splatling gun and splattering three more of the robed assailants. At this point, every opening to the house was now broke open. The back door, the windows, and the front door. As the more cultists poured in, they were able to shoot out even more oil and cover the floor or walls. The agents were not able to refill their ink tanks in oil if they turned into squids and tried to swim through it. They would be dead in seconds, instead of just simply unconscious.

"Alright. That's enough of this nonsense," they suddenly heard. Fulvous gasped, realizing that she had not watched the door for barely half a second, when suddenly, she got blasted by a huge burst of oil, dropping her splatling gun before being sent flying back and crashing into her television, breaking it. She slumped onto the ground, unconscious. In the doorway stood Taupe, who holding an inkzooka on his shoulder with a smirk on his face.

"Fulvous!" Maize aimed his splatterscope and quickly fired a fully charged burst of yellow ink. However, the cultist leader just blocked the attack with the inkzooka. ECO realized that they were getting outnumbered. Before she could attempt to help Agent 3, she got blasted by a shot of the inkzooka. She got covered in the black goo that dragged her body into falling to the couch and toppling it over. Here she went onto the floor, shutting her down instantly. The yellow squid was furious.

"Knock it off!" Maize tried to fire again. However, his splatterscope just clicked. He looked behind him. His ink tank was completely dry and empty, and now the huge number of the insane worshipers had begun to make their way in to back up their leader.

"Allow me to introduce myself…" Taupe coughed as the inkzooka reverted back to a Luna blaster. He put it on his side with a smirk, approaching the yellow inkling. The water entity on the table seemed to be gazing intensely at the leader of the worshipers.

"My name is Taupe Lackey. I can safely presume you're Agent 3?" Taupe introduced himself, getting close to Maize like he was just taunting him. Fulvous and ECO were beginning to get restrained. The cultists had plans to transfer them to the facility to hold them captive as well.

"You're last names Lackey? Why not Lunatic? That suits you more," Maize growled, throwing the first insult he had off the top of his head. The grey inkling pulled out something from his pocket. They were two ruby spheres, which Maize then took notice of and stared at. Taupe walked around the yellow squid in circles, juggling them carelessly.

"Yes, yes I understand your frustration, but don't worry. When everything is finished, you and your friends will be born anew… as humans, of course," Taupe chuckled, his words only portraying further his insanity. He tossed one of the ruby spheres to the tiny water creature, which then caught it within its body. The crystal moved to one of its legs, and it seemed to make it grow slightly in size.

"You see, I must thank you for hatching our savior here," the grey inkling continued, keeping the one ruby sphere to himself like it was too important to give up at this time to the water creature.

"Wait… that squishie is the thing you worshipped?!" Maize gawked. The cult leader rubbed his eyes sorely. He was getting a headache from this conversation.

"This is not a squishie. It is the key to our new, brighter future… Abraliopsis Morisii," Taupe claimed. This tiny creature was the one they were worshipping all along, and of course, some of the other robed cultists were confused. They had been informed of tales of this creature being able to change the world, but they were expecting a lot more from it.

"How an idiot like you managed to find out how to hatch it is beyond my understanding… but I will give you credit. You and your cohorts have caused me nothing but irritation ever since we started getting everything in motion," Taupe had a big smile while explaining everything, as he pocketed the last ruby sphere. The Abraliopsis Morisii looked irritated to not have it.

"You know, I'm not going to let you get away with this," Maize reminded. No matter what, he was going to put up a fight, even if he was surrounded and outnumbered. If he wasn't out of ink already, he would have made several more attempts on splatting Taupe.

"Yes I am quite aware, which is why I'm taking you all to a facility to keep you captive there. Don't worry, as a favor to your admirable spirit, I'll make sure that when the new world begins, you and your friends are the first to be killed," Taupe cackled, acting like he was rewarding a dog for learning how to sit on command.

"…I promise you won't get that far," Maize had a big grin, his sharp teeth showing. Taupe seemed to grow bored of this banter now as one of the cultists grabbed the water entity. The grey inkling grabbed the splatterscope and pulled it from Agent 3's hands, so fast that he had no time to react Maize watched as his favorite weapon got taken away, and then he got bashed across the face with it, being knocked to the floor.

"Be quiet, you corrupt monster," Taupe ordered, demanding complete obedience, before his feet abruptly got yanked out from under him, tripping him into the yellow ink they stood in. Maize had made him fall with his tentacle, chuckling while he laid on the floor.

"At least I didn't cut off my limbs. And you were calling me an idiot," Maize taunted. Taupe got sent over the edge. The grey inkling stood up, and he kicked Maize in the face as hard as a rock slide, watching his head bounce off the floor before he stomped on his face.

"I… shall not… be made… a mockery… in front… of our… savior!" Taupe screamed between stomps, one after another. His furious rampage kept continuing, as Maize was beginning to black out from the violent beating. The cult leader detested to be toyed with. He had given the Special Squid Services too much of his tolerance, and wasn't going to take any scat from them. After one more strong kick to the face, the now bruised and battered Maize laid unconscious on the floor. A few of the cultists came over to get him ready to transport to the facility.

"Mhm… I guess with that, we have every agent in our custody," Taupe took in a breath and exhaled, feeling a lot calmer after the violent beating he had given the yellow inkling. Although that sought to capture five agents, and they wound up capturing six. Taupe presumed that this was all of them. However, unbeknown to the cultists, there still was one more agent left. Taupe knew nothing about Maize's sister, Fallow. Agent 6 was the only one to have not been captured, but she had made a mysterious disappearance through the week, so no one knew about her condition. Taupe began moving toward the broken down door, heading down the steps of the porch with his goons following suit.

"This world shall enjoy tonight… for it will be its last…"


	47. Trapped

Maize's head was throbbing in pain. Everything was blurry and dark. He groaned in pain, rubbing his head sorely. When his vision adjusted he noticed a bunch of cracks on the left lens of his glasses that made it hard to see out of it, but his right lens was alright. The yellow inkling surveyed a small cave around him, where the only light was illuminating through the rusted bars. This cave seemed supported by just a few pillars that were not reassuring at all. It felt like it would collapse at any second if he wasn't careful.

"Where am I?" Maize muttered. His back was hurting a lot, as well as his face. It was all bruised and cut up. He had one black eye, but the swelling had gone down a lot. He had been unconscious for a couple of hours. Suddenly he could then hear a faint crying sound.

"You're in their holding facility, boy," a familiar voice rung out. Maize turned around to see DJ Octavio sitting against the wall, his helmet partially damaged and his garb dirtied from the brawl he had been in. He was still in his human form, as he had no choice but to remain that way.

"DJ Octavio?! Wow… you're actually not in your octopus form," Maize said, amazed. He had seen one sunken sea scroll that depicted Captain Cuttlefish and Octavio together, but he never imagined he would get to see the old octopus in his human form at all. Nearby was where the crying was coming from. It was Violet, who was no longer in his cultist robes.

"What happened?" Agent 3 added, wanting to know what had happened to their elders. He was worried about Captain Cuttlefish and all of his friends, so much so that it was plaguing his brain with worry.

"We were attacked by Taupe and his crew. Cuttlefish and I stood our ground as long as we could, but… our defeat was inevitable. Thankfully they seem to obey the rules of war," DJ Octavio exclaimed. He was referring to one of the old rules of war, which was to never hurt an elder who could not fight back. He and Cuttlefish were knocked out, but they took complete mercy on them. The yellow squid looked over to the non-tentacled purple inkling who was still crying.

"I-I gave up… I gave up everything for them… Why did I do it?!" Violet sobbed. DJ Octavio was getting very annoyed. He had been tolerating this crying for hours on end ever since he realized he was no longer going to be turned human by the cult, as he was intentionally promised when he first joined.

"…because… you decided to hide from the problems in your life?" Maize guessed. Violet looked up at him. It seemed like he hit the nail right on the head with that comment. The purple squid sniffled, nodding.

"You tried to run away from whatever your problems were, and all you did was get yourself tossed into the mess you helped create," Maize continued. He was understandably angry with Violet, but he was trying to reason with him. Whatever had been going on in the purple squid's life was bad enough that he was desperate to lose his squid properties in a delusional belief that it would somehow help.

"…yeah… I've had cancer for the last three years. It keeps coming back and going. Every time I thought I was better, in a couple months it would just reappear. My insides are a mess at this time around. When I met Taupe, he was so reassuring and strong… all these sunken sea scrolls he showed me promised a better life if I did all these things for him," Violet explained how he became a member of the cult and what he wanted gone from his old life, which would be the inevitable end of his short life. Maize felt bad for being hard to the purple squid, but he was aware they weren't going to get anywhere with pleading at this point.

"Sorry, wait… Sunken sea scrolls, you said?" Maize focused on that part more than anything. He didn't want to be insensitive, but Agent 3 presumed he had gathered all of the sunken sea scrolls while he was fighting against DJ Octavio's army.

"Err… yes. Taupe had an entire book dedicated to Abrailopsis Morisii. It depicted how this creature destroyed the world once, and how it could restore it just as easily…" Violet described. The yellow squid shook his head, looking to the samurai clothed DJ. They both thought the same thing right now, that it was indeed impossible.

"Sorry, squiddo… oh no, I'm starting to talk like him," Octavio groaned. Captain Cuttlefish's choice of language was now starting to rub off on him. He decided to continue his point.

"The sunken sea scrolls are an item impossible to replicate. There are thirty-two in all, and those are just bits and pieces of what was once a bigger collection. All other known sea scrolls were accidentally destroyed in the great turf war toward the end of it," DJ Octavio elaborated. It was safe to assume this was the clever lie that Taupe created to gather all of these poor misguided inklings and octolings into obeying him. It was a sad truth. The artist who painted some of those sea scrolls had died during the great turf war, which was sadly one of many unfortunate casualties for both sides.

"…I can help you guys," Violet stated in anger as he wiped away his tears from his face.

"Finally, the kid has some courage," Octavio said. All that Violet had done was cry hysterically shattered by his former fellow worshipers.

"I'm not a kid. I'm a squid," the purple inkling reminded as he approached the cell door. The other two prisoners looked to the sides. Further down each hall was a dual line of other prison cells, with an unknown number of squids and octarians held captive.

"Shove me through the bars, and I promise I can get them all open," Violet insisted. Maize gave a grin to him.

"Thanks. Glad you've come to your senses," Maize thanked him as the purple inkling changed into his squid form. He was unable to move with neither of his tentacles intact. He looked slightly weird, in fact. The yellow squid picked him up and pushed him right through the bars. They had to be careful, or else they might have guards attack them, but thankfully the guards seemed to be absent for some odd reason. It left an eerie atmosphere surrounding them all.

"Ow! Thanks for being gentle…" Violet sarcastically claimed as he changed back to his inkling form. Now he was outside of the bars with a new determination inside of him. They saw him go over out of their sight briefly.

"I swear if he abandoned us…" Octavio growled.

"Nah, don't worry… He made a promise," Maize reassured, though this did not seem to reassure the old octarian as much as it did him. They could hear the sounds of clattering before they saw Violet reappear, holding three sets of keys. He began to fiddle with them one at a time, trying to unlock the cell. At last, the eighth key did the job, and the lock clattered to the ground.

"The guards are all gone…! Start unlocking these," Violet grinned, tossing Maize and DJ Octavio separate sets of keys, both hoping that they had a master key somewhere amongst the hundreds of different keys. The three of them immediately went to work, unlocking all of the cell doors. Each one unlocked a cell and released three more people who would then happily make their escape.

"Guys! Are you in here?!" Maize called out through the hall of cells as he unlocked another cell, seeing two octolings and an inkling climb out of the prison cake, thanking him before they went to gather with the other escaped prisoners.

"Maize? We're down here!" Callie's voice rung out. Maize ran down a few cells. He had a burst of relief to see Callie, who stood behind the bars, holding a sleeping Bondi in her arms.

"Hang on, I'll get you out in a second," Maize insisted, glad to see them unharmed. He began to try one key at a time to try and unlock the cell immediately.

"Oh, good. You have the keys… I was beginning to get worried I'd have to use this," Octoronia's voice spoke up as she approached the bars. It was just the three of them in this prison cell. She was holding an odd device that looked to be fashioned from their two cellphones with a big button on the side.

"Is that a bomb?!" Callie gulped, holding her squishie close to her chest. She had only given the inventor octoling her cellphone out of trust that she would be able to find some way to break the lock with it, but she had not been informed of it being made into an explosive. They had no cellphone reception down here anyway.

"Hey, only being here an hour, and you were afraid we'd starve…" Octoronia retorted with a devious smirk. When the cell door finally opened she tossed the bomb to Maize. He caught it in a panic.

"Thank you so much," Callie wrapped one arm around Maize. He chuckled, glad to see her so happy. When the embrace ended, the black squid girl pointed to the next cell.

"I watched them put Marie and ECO in there. I think they're both asleep," Callie claimed. Maize carefully slid the bomb into his pocket, able to guess how to activate it with that button, but he had a feeling it would come in handy.

"Callie, go group up with Violet and Octavio. We'll go get them," Maize pointed to the opposite end of the hall. Callie seemed confused when he mentioned Octavio, but she nodded, going off with Bondi in her arms, feeling horrible to bring the squishie into any danger like this. Octoronia set off with Maize to open the other cell which contained their friends.

"Jeez… if I had known we'd have to deal with this many locks, I'd have gotten my bad key machine before they captured me!" Octoronia groaned. Finally they unlocked the door with the fifth key. When they opened the cell door, they saw the deactivated ECO lying on the floor, and an asleep Marie nearby against the wall, just like her cousin guessed. Maize approached the white inkling and crouched down beside her.

"Hey, Marie… wake up," Maize said while shaking her slightly. Octoronia was trying to reactivate her mechanical sibling, the same way she had Agent 3 do it before by spinning the emotional cortex.

"Ugh…" Marie moaned as her eyes began to open. She saw her dear friend near her, and a smile beamed up on her. He held a hand out for her, and she happily put her hand in his, letting him help her up.

"Oh, thank goodness. I was worried they had done something to you…" Marie exclaimed in relief, though immediately looked embarrassed to have admitted her worries. Her close friend grinned, but she could not see his facial damage entirely well in the darkness.

"I promised I'd be there if you or Callie needed me," Maize gave a thumbs up. ECO was getting up, having been reactivated. When Octoronia helped her sister up, the two octarians saw Maize and Marie, and that odd aura of joy they both were emitting around each other.

"You alright?" Agent 4 asked her sister.

"Yeah… don't worry about me," Agent 5 nodded, reassuring that she was fine. The four of them stepped out of the cell. Maize looked around, and it seemed like they had opened every one of the cell doors, but there was no sign of Captain Cuttlefish anywhere.

"Maize… this one attacked me by the time I opened her cell," DJ Octavio spoke. Callie and Violet were right beside him, but Fulvous was on his back, throwing weak punches at his back. She had mistook the octopus as a member of the cultists. He seemed just mildly irritated by her weak assault, and Callie was unable to convince her otherwise.

"F-Fulvous, calm down. He's with us," Maize insisted. That seemed to get the orange squid off the elder octopus's back. The freed prisoners were making an effort to escape. No one doubted their reasoning for this at this point. The Squid Sisters wanted to leave, too, but both knew to confront this situation head on at this point.

"Alright… so what's the plan, boss?" Violet requested, facing Agent 3. The yellow inkling did not know how to feel about being treated like the leader of the Special Squid Services, but he guessed that the purple inkling would want to join once things calmed down.

"We gotta find the cap'n and take down Taupe. He's been lying to all these octolings and inklings. Whatever that water creature is, I don't want to see it with all those crystals," Maize described the plan, ready to head off with the other agents they had available. It still made him worry that his sister Fallow was nowhere to be seen.

"Uh, Octavio, could you please watch over Bondi for me?" Callie requested, not wanting to bring her son into a threatening situation. Oil was very lethal to squishies. She would be devastated if such a thing happened to him.

"Err… I suppose I can. My age makes me the weakest one here after all," DJ Octavio agreed. The black squid, handing over her sleeping son to the garbed octopus. And thus, the agents all headed off the other way, with Violet at the lead, so they could hopefully defuse this situation once and for all. Taupe had to be stopped, no matter the situation, and Maize was going to make sure that happened before any more lives were affected.


	48. Possession

The group of agents had all run around through this facility. Violet had led them up from the underground prison and through quite a few rooms. Every place they passed through felt unsettling. Each room was poorly lit. The only thing illuminating them at most were candles, and most looked like fire hazards at this point, as a lot of the candle wax on each had melted.

"Where are we going?" Callie had to ask. They were unarmed, and the only two agents amongst them who had pure strength in their bodies were Marie and ECO. They were the strongest in the group, but even they could not handle a group of cultists with oil spewing weapons with just their fists.

"If I'm right about what's happening, then it's starting…" Violet answered as they ran through a hallway that housed eerie paintings lining the stone walls. Each one looked like a horrific mess of artwork that could only be described as made by an intoxicated painter on a Halloween night.

"What's starting?" Marie asked. Maize did not like the idea of fighting half blind, but his glasses were half broken, so he was left with no choice but to tolerate it. He wished he had gotten his octoling goggles from home. They would at least give both of his eyes a short distance of view.

"Fill us in, Violet," Maize added. The purple inkling led them to a wooden door that had some odd steel bolts reinforcing it. The door itself looked damaged by lack of care. He grabbed the huge handle and pulled it open, which took a lot of strength.

"The ritual for the beginning of the end of Inkopolis and Mollusk Metropolis! I know Taupe may have faked those sea scrolls… but the Abrailopsis Morisii existed back when the great disaster first struck humans. This thing might be very powerful," Violet described as they were entering into an empty upstairs area. The facility upstairs had an odd banister vision going on. ECO then noticed something odd over the railing.

"We're here…" Octoronia said upon seeing the same thing her sister saw. Maize, Callie, Marie and Fulvous all approached the banister. The shadows were going to keep them hidden quite well. The group all were looking into the room. There were rows of long benches set up with four big chandeliers dangling from the ceiling attached to chains, running to some levels off to the side. There was an altar set up with a black rug, and on top of it, the watery squid, the Abrailopsis Morisii, was standing upon it. Two tall candles were aside it with a big red curtain behind it.

"What do we do?" Fulvous asked nervously. Everyone was thinking the same thing at that moment. They had not one idea. The benches in the room were full of robed figures, and they were heavily armed. Seemingly, none of them liked putting down their weapons.

"…I see the cap'n," Maize pointed out. Captain Cuttlefish was barely visible, but they could see him tied up to a metal pole with ropes around him. Callie and Marie instantly wanted to go try and rescue their grandfather, but they had no choice but to try and wait for the best opportunity. The yellow inkling saw these huge curtains draping off the walls around.

Down below in the odd gathering, they saw Taupe. He walked down the carpet toward the watery squid with a big smirk on his face. Maize felt something touching his hand. He looked down to see Marie, whom was looking for reassurance by doing this. Maize grabbed her hand and squeezed. The Squid Sister looked at their hands and then back at him. She could tell by the look in Agent 3's eyes that he was planning something horribly unintelligent. ECO's emotional cortex had not shown that purple light in some time, each time she saw the two sent a surge of mixed feelings through her.

"We've all worked hard… and the day I promised you all has finally arrived," Taupe exclaimed as he walked. One step after another, his feet echoed through the quiet room as they tapped onto the carpet. The water creature was staying on the altar, just as unmoving as ever.

"Before we do anything… where can we begin?" the cultists' leader smirked as he stepped in front of the altar. He turned around, looking at the many inklings and octolings. Not one of them had their tentacles or their sharp teeth. Their robed hoods were pulled down, unveiling their faces and their happy expressions. Captain Cuttlefish was struggling against his restraints in irritation.

"When I was born… I had a bit of a genetic disease. Changing from my normal form to my cursed squid form would bring me immense, unbearable pain," Taupe began his speech. He did not deny how he grew up as an inkling. He was unable to participate in turf wars, and not being able to turn into a squid was losing his mobility which one needed around any turf war location.

"When I found the sunken sea scrolls in my attic that was left by my grandfather. After a few painful years, I was able to gather you all. I realized that the world was a miserable realm of lies, which cursed us all to be born in these sinful bodies!" Taupe growled, gritting his small teeth. Violet was just listening to this rambling. His grip kept tightening on the stone balcony out of rage of these false beliefs, which he had been tricked into believing.

"My family! We all were meant for better lives! And soon we will all have it! I would not have gotten anywhere near this far without each and every one of you," Taupe continued his speech, reaching into his robe and pulling out the last ruby sphere. All watched as the Abrailopsis Morisii took notice of this, its eyes widened to get a clear view of it. The four ruby spheres in its body began to separate. Now there was one in each arm and one in each leg.

"I can take a wild guess at where he's gonna go with this…" Maize muttered, seeing the grey inkling begin to gain an all too familiar look on his face. It was the same look the yellow squid saw when being beaten into unconsciousness.

"And now it's time… for my ascension!" Taupe opened his mouth as wide as he could before putting the ruby sphere into it. They watched him gulp in some attempt to swallow the gem whole. He broke out into a choked coughing fit. All of the worshipers on the benches looked confused, casting glances around each other. The choking had taken the almighty tension out of the speech, and now they were questioning the sanity of their leader. After a few more awkward seconds and a violent coughing fit, Taupe regained his composure.

"Ahem… as I was saying… it is time… for my ascension! With this in my body, you have no choice but to obey me," Taupe stated, turning to the Abrailopsis Morisii. The watery squid had a furious appearance, as the grey inkling turned his back on it, appearing to have lost his mind.

"I feel like I'm having a bad dream," Callie murmured in fear, making her tentacles wrap around her body for some comfort. Fulvous however was more interested in searching for weapons. She grabbed Violet.

"H-hey, what're you doing?" Violet asked quietly and irritably as Fulvous took him away. They needed fire power and he would hopefully know where the armory to this facility was.

"Me and you both," Marie watched. Taupe was beginning to break into a maniacal laugh. The entire room was focused on him until one voice cut into his laugh.

"Hey! Lackey the lunatic!" Maize roared. All eyes were on him. He was at the back of the room near the door. He had slid down one of the curtains when no one was paying attention, and he made himself loudly present to put a stop to this ceremonial madness.

"Maize!" ECO facepalmed. This was the one person she had a crush on. Octoronia, Marie and Callie had the same looks at the moment, wondering what that yellow squid was doing.

"Wha… what!? Who do you think you are, disrupting this sacred moment!" Taupe stomped furiously. The other octolings and inklings in the room were beginning to prepare their weapons. Agent 3 however had that same big grin on his bruised face. He pointed to himself.

"I'm Maize Dagenhart! If ya remembered, I promised I wouldn't let you get any farther than this… and I'm still not!" Maize reminded, glad to repeat himself with a big grin. Taupe was about to pop a gasket at this very minute. He raised his hand up, ready to give the order for all of the cultists to fire their oil filled weapons at Maize.

"Squiddo! You got a spirit like mine! But ya really need to think things through a bit better," Captain Cuttlefish spoke from nearby, he had given up on trying to escape the rope binding him.

"Sorry cap'n, but I couldn't resist! I felt so much excitement… instead of fear," Maize crossed his arms. However his eyes went wide at what he saw behind Taupe. The Abrailopsis Morisii was beginning to stretch its watery body, and none of the cultists in the room seemed to take notice. The others agents were busy trying to find a safer way down to where the yellow inkling was.

"Taupe! Behind you! Run!" Maize screamed. No one turned around. Captain Cuttlefish gulped, wishing he was not restrained right now.

"Hah! I'm not falling for your simple tricks! Now die!" Taupe tried to throw his hand down. However, something wrapped around his wrist and restrained his movements.

"Wha?!" the grey inkling got grabbed by his ankles and his throat. They looked like small tentacles made entirely out of water. He grabbed the one around his throat. His eyes were wide in horror. All of the other cultists turned around, trying to watch what was happening. Maize quickly went over and removed the rope from Captain Cuttlefish to help free him.

"Stop! Let go of me! I spent decades on this! You cannot betray me!" Taupe gasped as the watery creature was beginning to wrap around his body. This monster was stretching and changing in size. It was desperate for that last ruby sphere, and it had no care if it had to consume the grey inkling to get it.

"Taupe!" Maize called out, watching the other cultists change their weapons' aim to focus on their leader, but they were too afraid to shoot, as the watery creature was so close around him that it was impossible to hit without hurting Taupe himself.

"No! Someone help!" Taupe screamed, crying almost as his body was being captured. The watery creature had the grey inkling's body trapped, except for his head. He was desperately trying to break out, but he was unable to get free. The cultists were still too afraid to shoot.

"Are you serious?! No one's going to try and help him?!" Maize growled once he finished freeing Captain Cuttlefish. He immediately ran between the benches, darting right toward the cultist leader, but at this very second, Taupe's entire body was consumed as the watery creature was beginning to change in size and shape.

"Hey! Stay with me! I promise things'll be alright!" Maize told Taupe. He got no response, though the grey inkling was moving, as if he was being manipulated by the Abrailopsis Morisii. Agent 3 got bashed in the side by a clear tentacle. He got sent flying into the other robed figures, crashing into them and knocking a good few over.

"Open fire!" one of the cultists finally spoke up. They all began shooting at the growing water creature. The oil was hitting the watery body. Its angry eyes focused on them all as it kept growing. The oil would leave a black mark in its body for a moment, but it would inevitably vanish, almost like it had a fast cleaning method.

"You… all of you… shall perish…" the Abrailopsis Morisii spoke through Taupe who was still stuck inside his body. It had taken control of him as soon as it finished growing in size. The creature was huge enough to rival a kraken. It pulled back one of its huge tentacles, swinging in a swiping motion and striking the right side of the room, slapping each one of the robed cultists against the wall. The rest remaining were beginning to run.

"Maize! We're here to help! ...oh gosh!" Callie's voice rung out. They had just opened the doors to this ceremonial room and were expecting to find their friend unconscious. Needless to say, this situation had escalated a lot worse than they expected, as the robed group was fleeing past them. Maize groaned, standing up from the few cultists he had accidentally knocked out. His body was hurting right now. However, one of the knocked out cultists had a splatterscope. He smiled, grabbing it, as well as the oil filled ink tank. He hated to use the substance instead of his ink, but he had to tolerate it.

"Grab whatever weapons you can!" Maize told the other agents as the Abrailopsis Morisii was now a watery tentacled titan, threatening to attack them all in a rampage, and Taupe was its convoy to the start of its terror. The yellow squid squeezed the trigger, aiming as his weapon charged up. Once fully charged, he let go, watching a strong burst of oil shoot out. It hit the water monster in the shoulder, actually stunning it for a brief moment before it roared in fury.

"Wh-what are we aiming for?!" ECO asked. She had acquired a slather blaster while Octoronia had taken a Tentatek splattershot. The yellow squid thought that over for a second. His adventures against DJ Octavio's army had taught him one thing; to always look for weak spot to hit against giant monsters.

"Those red orbs," Maize recommended, presuming those to be the weak point of the Abrailopsis Morisii. However they could see it begin stomping toward them on all fours. It was quite a scary sight for the group of agents. However, they heard a loud rattling noise. One look upward, and they could see two of the chandeliers falling from high up.

"What is this?" it spoke through Taupe's voice before they both fell, crashing onto the Abrailopsis Morisii and bringing it into the ground. A lot of its huge watery body got thrown off it. It was now pinned underneath the chandeliers, and the ruby crystal in its left arm shattered into tiny shards, forcing it to shrink slightly in size. The group looked to the left. They saw one of the cultists near the levers that held the chains up.

"Hello! This is Fallow!" Fallow happily rung out while taking the hood off her head. A surprise for all, that she had been in disguise for most of the time so she could help out when needed. However she had no idea this would happen.

"Fallow!" Maize rushed over, hugging her happily, practically picking his sister up off the ground. He was relieved to see her alright. Marie groaned, seeing the water monster throw off the chandeliers in rage as it stood up. They all noticed it shoot out its small tentacles from its back into the ceiling at once.

"Oh… I'm more scared than a little pup! Don't worry, I brought backup! They are somewhere around here," Fallow explained in her usual rhyme. Maize quirked an eyebrow, wondering who she could have brought as backup.

"We need to get out!" ECO exclaimed, seeing the tentacles rip out the ceiling, causing parts of it to fall off. The ceiling began crumbling down toward them. One piece of the rubble bounced off the metal octoling's head with a loud clang.

"Ow…"

"She's right! Let's go and come up with a plan quick," Marie agreed as she sidestepped another two blocks of the stone. Marie picked up Captain Cuttlefish, carrying him as all the agents began to all head out of the room while it began caving in on itself. They could only hope that every one of those cultists who were stuck in there would be alright.

"Follow me, and we'll see the special team," Fallow requested them to follow her down the left path. The big doors to the former ritual room weren't going to keep the beast trapped for long, but she planned to get them properly equipped. She had brought quite a few friends to help, and they were all supposed to be in the armory.

"Please do. The more the merrier," Octoronia agreed. Maize was just glad he did not have to use the cellphone bomb he had in his pocket. The group of agents followed Fallow off in a hurry to get to the point to group up with this special team she had, but the yellow squid for some reason had a bad feeling. Taking out only one of the ruby spheres in Abrailopsis Morisii was not going to keep it slowed down for long. He had no idea how he was going to rescue Taupe at all, since that fool had consumed one of those rubies out of some idiotic idea. A great battle was about to break out, and they all were very aware of that, but Maize promised to make sure to see through to the end, and he was fully determined to make sure of this. They all just hoped that the creature was not able to break free, of the room it was pinned within.


	49. Unexpected Help

Maize and co had all ran for the armory, with Fallow leading them along. It was not far from the ceremonial roam where the Abraliopsis Morisii was pinned down. They needed better weaponry, only having these rubbish ones that were modified to fire oil. They arrived to one end of a long hallway that had a huge door before them, ECO helping Fallow to open it.

"What kind of weapons are in there?" Callie asked, wanting to know if they had a wide variety or a narrow variety that they had to make work with. She hoped that they were much well-kept than the ones the group had stolen.

"If you do not mind, there was a lot we did find," Fallow rhymed in her usual tone. Once they got the door fully opened, everyone was in awe. About each type of weapon from Inkopolis or Mollusk Metropolis were lining the walls. It was astonishing to know how much of a stockpile the cultists had. However, when they entered in the room they saw Fulvous and Violet, and a lot of other robed figures in the room.

"A trap?!" Marie got ready to attack, thinking they had walked into a rigged setup to those insane cultists.

"Wa-wait! Calm down, Marie!" they heard a familiar voice, seeing one of the robed figures step up and remove their cloak, unveiling a familiar blue tentacled squid. The white inkling quickly felt relaxed to see a familiar face.

"Aero? What are you doing here?" Maize asked. He was glad to see his ex-wife, wondering if this was that backup team that his sister had gathered. In which case, it was impressive. They were able to sneak around undetected for this entire time.

"You know me, Maize. I'm the type that loves to have any reason to run out from a very important meeting," Aero smirked cheekily. She was not entirely lying. Dramatically fleeing from a meeting for some reason gave the clients who were attending said meeting a sense of trust in her, as though bailing from the meeting was somehow showing true strength in decisions. All in all, it had synched that one easily.

"And wherever she goes, her trusty bodyguard follows," Onyx's voice rung out as he took off his hood. Frankly he hated these disguises the most, and was glad to finally have a reason to remove them. He was carrying something he had gotten straight from the back of the weapons armory, presenting it to them.

"Wow… that's the new E-liter 3K!" Marie said. The charger was fashioned from bamboo, and it had some tagline about organic junk, but no squid ever cared for the marketing slogan behind any of the weapons. Captain Cuttlefish could see that everyone was trying to take their pick of the weaponry and switch from those oil ink tanks to proper ink. The other agents were mostly letting Maize confront the team his sister had brought.

"And who are you guys?" Maize looked to the group to the left. There were three robed figures, all preparing their weapons. They were glad to disrobe the cultist clothing when they could.

"It's us, dude," Cobalt chuckled. Standing beside him was his sister, Auburn, and between them was someone he did not expect to see here, or anywhere.

"Rose?! You're here, too?!" Agent 3 gawked. He was glad to see Auburn and Cobalt at least. They were the ones in trouble on his very first mission that started the Special Squid Service's road to fame, but Rose was the insane private club owner who had blackmailed Cobalt into remaining there for free labor. However, Maize could not deny that he was glad to see another squid with one tentacle like he had now.

"Dim as ever, arent'cha? Go figure. I wound up becoming a pal to these two after you beat some sense into me," Rose cackled, though that tone did not reassure him at all. He remembered beating her in a fight, but that was about it. He was impressed though that the one fight he had refused to splatter her in, had somehow changed her mindset.

"A lot has changed since you helped us out, Maize," Auburn gave that bright smile. Everyone in this room was here to help. Maize had to guess that everyone in disguise that Fallow gathered were squids he knew.

"Well I'll be… looks like your good deeds have come back to haunt ya," Captain Cuttlefish patted Maize on the back as he saw the other robed figures disrobe their disguises. Thus revealed Basil, Aureolin, Umber, Mauve and Amaranth. Every one of these squids he had helped out with. All of them had come to return the favor and help them, particularly when Fallow came to them and explained the situation.

"Wow… those are a lot of inklings," Octoronia spoke in awe, specifically to Maize about. Maize looked to her and nodded to this, happy to see so many familiar faces. Everyone was here, and they were a lot of inklings that Octoronia and ECO didn't recognize, but they were all welcome as far as they knew.

"Some of us agreed to come, even before we knew of the whole 'Destruction of Inkopolis' deal," Basil admitted. He had jumped the gun in the conversation with Fallow and agreed to participate. Every one of them was armed and ready to go. Altogether, there were about eighteen of them in this room, ready to do battle, all except Captain Cuttlefish. No one wanted the elder to get hurt. The group suddenly heard a loud banging on the door.

"Uh… did you get even more help than this?" ECO quirked. She was impressed at the small platoon that Fallow had gathered. However the brain damaged inkling shook her head. This was everyone, they had grouped up in the armory, when things began to go crazy in the ceremonial room.

"Open it," Marie ordered her cousin while aiming the E-liter 3k at the door, charging the weapon up. Callie nodded, as they had closed the heavy door behind them when they came inside, but it was a lot easier to push open than to pull it open. She shoved the door, watching it slowly fly open before she ducked.

"Gruhhh!" they saw one of the non-tentacled octolings who stood there with a small layer of water surrounding their body. They had no look in their eyes at all, as though he had become zombified. Marie let go of the trigger, watching her charger fire. The full blast of green ink hit the possessed cultist in the chest, splattering them instantly. So far she was loving the new weapon.

"Well, I did not expect that," Umber muttered while walking around with his ink brush over his shoulder

"The Abraliopsis… or whatever took over Taupe… that means its taking over everyone who's knocked out in that room!" Maize exclaimed the same revelation that everyone had reached. Those who had gone unconscious in the ceremonial room trying to escape when the ceiling was collapsing, were now being possessed to be used as mindless puppets in its rampage.

"Does that mean it's no longer trapped?" Callie squeaked, just when the ground rumbled and that familiar ferocious roar rung out, followed by a loud crash. The group of eighteen all had the terrified looks on their faces.

"Alright! Let's go, team!" Maize declared, taking leadership of everyone from here. Everyone agreed, all armed to the teeth with the best weapons they could get their hands on. The group began to leave, Captain Cuttlefish deciding to stay behind in the armory to rest his now aching back. However, before Maize could go, he got grabbed.

"Here, I fought a lot, so your weapons could be brought," Fallow rhymed. Her younger brother was confused. She had brought a very large and heavy case along. She put it on the floor and opened it in front of him. He got a big grin on his face, for inside of it were the many mementos and possessions he had gathered of the course of his missions, all kept nicely in the strongest case available to them.

"…Fallow, thank you…!" Maize hugged his sister.

"Go on without me. I'll catch up," he added. His sister nodded, running off to help the others, aware that her brother will catch up.

"Squiddo… I hope you aren't gonna do what I think you're gonna do," Captain Cuttlefish said, seeing Maize grab his glasses and took them off his face before pocketing them. The boy reached into the box, grabbing the pair of octoling goggles he had gotten from Octoronia. He put them on his face, adjusting them so his vision was alright. He was working hard to get everything ready. He got the octoling charger he received from ECO and her sister as a reward for saving the mechanical octoling. He tossed it over his shoulder alongside the Splatterscope, and then he grabbed that earring he had gotten from Auburn for rescuing her brother, pocketing it for good luck. He reached into the case, pulling out the heavy splatling gun named Sasha which he had received from Fulvous as an apology item for what she had done to him. Maize grinned, beginning to slowly walk on ahead, feeling weighted down immensely by the heavy weaponry he was carrying. However he was believing he needed a bit more ammo for all the weaponry.

"Squiddo! Do me proud!" Captain Cuttlefish ordered. He wondered where DJ Octavio was though, he had not seen the elder octopus in a bit of time.

The seventeen members of the group had gone to the ceremonial room, but they almost didn't know about Maize's disappearance. As they arrived into the room however, what they wandered upon was a huge hole in the wall, as well as the sudden disappearance of nearly everyone who had been in this room unconscious.

"How big is this thing…?" Aureolin nervously asked.

"The size of a big bus," Octoronia claimed. Everyone was heading through the chain of holes in the walls, one after another. There were so many huge breaches that it made the facility look unsafe to even inhabit.

"It's gotten outside," Marie groaned. No such thing as a calm moment, she thought. The group saw the light of the early morning sun shining through the last broken through wall. When the group stepped outside, they could see an abandoned shopping center ahead that had failed a long time back. The cultists had just taken it as their personal facility and made some special modifications to it.

"I-it at least looks smaller… kind of," Callie stated with a roller on her shoulder. Every nearby inkling who had been unfortunate to see the Abraliopsis Morisii had been possessed by it, as well. The water monster had every cultist surrounded by a small layer of water around their bodies, possessing them.

"'Ey! Down here!" Mauve taunted as he saw Taupe floating around inside the water creature. The monster looked toward the group, while Aero smacked the construction worker in the back of the head, wishing he had not blabbed. Any form of subtly they had was already lost.

"Here they come…" Amaranth sighed, rubbing his head. He had a few syringes of that pain nullifying medicine on his person, but that was in case things went horribly bad, and they had to fight through the pain. However, the first six possessed robed figures who approached were quickly defeated by a rapid bunch of bursts of yellow ink that dove at them, splattering them instantly.

"Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late," they heard Maize speak up as he was exiting the facility, the weapons on his back and his splatling gun prepared. He had three ink tanks on his back, all filled with yellow ink, and it sure hurt a lot to the point that he felt like his back was going to give out at any minute. He had no real choice but to keep going, not wanting to give any rest as long as the Abraliopsis Morisii was alive. They all were about to be in for what may go down as the second great turf war. There was only a small group of not even twenty, against the almighty thousands year old creature and its possessed puppets. This was the time the Special Squid Services, and those aiding the agents, had to give it their all.


	50. Battle for everyone's lives

**Authors Note: Hi all, please leave a review telling me what you thought, only two chapters left before this fic is done! And I hope you all have a happy thanksgiving.**

The team of eighteen were all ready to fight Abraliopsis Morisii and its possessed army. They had to have devise kind of plan. This was a small platoon versus another small platoon, but if they did not stop it, who knew how many more squids or octopi this watery monster would go on to possess.

"What's the plan here?!" Marie requested, aiming her E-liter 3k as she eyed the crowd of possessed cultists. All eighteen of them were ready. Maize had to think up a plan, and fast. He was the one who was heavily armed here, and it made sense that he should take on the Abraliopsis Morisii. He had two chargers and the splatling gun at hand, ready and waiting. Thankfully the yellow squid came up with a plan fast, or at least one he hoped would work.

"Okay! Callie, Marie, Fallow, you're with me. We'll deal with Taupe and the big guy," Maize started. The Squid Sisters and his sibling all agreed, obeying his command.

"Aero, Basil, ECO, Fulvous and Auburn. You make sure anyone nearby is long gone. I don't care how you have to do it. Just get it done and dusted," Agent 3 continued. The five were a bit upset that they had to abandon the ones close to them and their new friends, but if it was for the best, then they did not argue. They immediately headed off to clear the area so the water monster could not possess anyone else. A few more of the possessed cultists attempted to approach, when Callie swung overhead, splattering them all with a wave of pink ink from her roller.

"Umber, Mauve, Onyx, Rose, Amaranth. You try and distract as many of these possessed nuts as you can and get them away from here," Maize ordered. They agreed, but doubted they would be able to get their attention easy. However, Onyx had the bright idea to attack the big one in control of them all in the first place.

"Hey! You wanna go, ya ugly freak!" the bodyguard shouted, firing his Tentatek splattershot. The black ink splotched onto the Abraliopsis Morisii. The monster glared at him, and just like that, over half the possessed cultists were beginning to chase them. The group of five headed off to the other direction to lure them away like they were ordered to.

"Octoronia, Aureolin, Violet, and Cobalt. Gather spare weapons and ink tanks, and go around and help anyone of the other groups that needs it. Make sure everyone can still fight," Maize's final ordered was given, and the four of them headed back into the facility to gather the spared weapons, leaving Maize, Callie, Marie and Fallow together against the last of the possessed cultists, the Abraliopsis Morisii and the trapped Taupe within it.

"Maize… I feel like I'm in a bit of a daze right now. If we could, what do you think we should do?" Fallow requested while turning up her oxygen, trying to calm herself, wanting to know what the four of them had to do to beat this monster. Marie had to fire another fully charged shot from her E-liter 3k, splattering two more of the possessed lunatics.

"First, we smash each of those ruby crystals. Then we gotta figure out how to save Taupe," Maize answered, preparing his splatling gun, the three yellow filled ink tanks on his back ready to send their ammo toward the enemy.

"You really want to save him? Didn't he beat you to a pulp?" Callie responded while slamming her roller on the ground. She had been aware of what caused the facial damage that had happened to her dear friend after he had stated it earlier.

"We're the Special Squid Services. It's our job," Marie sighed, repeating the saying she had heard the yellow squid say one too many times as she prepared her charger.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Marie," Maize gave her that bright smile of his. Even in this very scary situation, he was able to stay positive. The white inkling felt embarrassed to be taking his orders and somewhat enjoying it.

"Let's go!" Callie exclaimed, charging ahead with her roller, Fallow following behind her shortly after with her ink brush following behind her. They both left behind their trails of ink. Abraliopsis Morisii made Taupe point toward them, and one of the water creature's tentacles pointed toward them like a puppet string. Instantly, a few of the cultists began to approach in their zombified state.

"Well, it's on now!" Maize began firing his splatling gun, firing a spray of yellow ink to suppress the approaching cultists. Multiple were splattered easily. Callie spun around, bashing three with her roller, splattering them and leaving behind nothing but a pink mess of ink where they once were. Marie fired at the watery creature, toward one of the ruby spheres. She hit the area with green ink. However it seemed to just clean it right off fast.

"Ugh! Even a charger isn't breaking through" the white inkling groaned, trying to think of a way to break through the Abraliopsis Morisii. That monster seemed content to watch its goons fight for it, as all of the leftover possessed cultists began to approach. Fallow was helping Callie keep them away since they were unarmed. It was very easy to splatter them all. They all just looked and acted like breakable shields.

"If this is the kind of army that it wants to make, then it sure is weak," Marie stated, though she was feeling that same suspicious feeling in her tentacles.

"Unless… I think we're underestimating them…" Marie spoke up. Maize was confused until he suddenly heard a shattering noise. One of his three ink tanks had been broken, now just seeping out the yellow ink. He groaned, gladly tossing it off, thankful to have some of that heavy weight off his back. He turned around to see the cause of it, but there was no one behind them. He gulped at what he saw.

"I think you just jinxed us," Maize spoke up. Marie turned around, letting Callie and Fallow deal with the leftover cultists. However, Agents 2 and 3 saw three more possessed cultists, but these ones were very different. They each had four small water tentacles surrounding them, which had great range on them.

"Huh… they wanted to be human, yet they wound up with more squid properties," Marie said, finding this a bit ironic. Then again, she doubted any of the cultists anticipated the very entity they worshipped turning against them all.

"Oh, dang it!" Maize revved up his splatling gun, Marie aiming her charger, both seeing one of them throw all four of their tentacles toward them in an attempt to attack. At this point they had to deal with the cultists before they could even touch the Abraliopsis Morisii, and it looked like a somewhat unfair contest on both sides. Callie and Fallow had to cover their family for now.

Aero had taken up the role as leader for her division of the group. Thankfully no one butted heads with her over the matter. They had been doing their best to clear out every home and usually pointing out the giant water monster in the near distance did a pretty great job of making someone run away from this area.

"Look, buddy, I've shown you that big blob of water. Why can't you just buzz off?" Basil growled while talking to a stubborn inkling who sat on his front porch with a book in his hands. ECO was watching from nearby, seeing one of the rouge possessed cultists approaching. She shot her slather blaster at them, and only three hits from the purple ink were able to splatter them, leaving behind just a small ink puddle.

"I don't care. I'm not moving an inch," the stubborn squid retorted. The green boy was really feeling his patience get pushed. He pulled his 96 gal deco off his side and aimed it right in the face of the squid.

"Threatening me won't make me move."

"'Course not. I'm done talking," Basil squeezed the trigger, firing a close up burst of green ink that splattered the stubborn squid, coating the porch and the chair he had been in with green ink.

"I'm questioning the ethnics of this," ECO stated. Aero was rubbing her head. She had witnessed the end of that. If splattering someone was the best option to see them safe, then they would do it without hesitation.

"Waaah!" they suddenly heard a loud scream. They turned around to see Fulvous who fell to the ground, scraping into the dirt. Her odd entrance of flying from the air surprised them. ECO and Aero went down to help their friend up, Basil hopping off the porch in confusion, when he saw someone running toward them in the distance.

"Guys! We got a problem!" Auburn shouted while she was running toward them, panicked.

"What? Did it multiply or something?" Basil joked before they suddenly saw her head jerk back. Something had grabbed her by her tentacles.

"Gah!" she got thrown backwards, crashing onto the gravel. This had startled them all.

"Th-there's something invisible tossing us around," Fulvous stated sorely while she was helped up. Aero quirked an eyebrow before making an ink bomb. She tossed the triangular bomb near Auburn. She gulped, guarding herself before it exploded, creating an explosion of blue ink around. They suddenly saw a cultist appear, covered in said ink.

"Gruhh…" the possessed cultist muttered as he became visible. The water surrounding their body washed away the ink quite fast. Somehow it was refracting the rays of light to become completely invisible to them.

"…well, that's a neat trick," Basil said before he suddenly got bashed in the back of the head, forcing him onto the ground. That hurt a lot, and he wondered what had done that. Fulvous fired behind him with an orange blast of ink. She found another invisible cultist, who she then shot a couple more times with her ink before the cultist splattered. She helped up the relieved green squid.

"Oh dear. I believe we're surrounded," ECO stated, her chest light turning red in anger. Aero was helping Auburn who had gotten some blue ink on her legs, which stung badly, but she would tolerate the pain. Before anyone could say anything, the many cultists decided to make themselves present. There were at least twenty in all, Basil was already out cold.

"Splatter them all, then!" Aero ordered before seeing them all begin turning invisible. She gulped before being hit in the stomach, grunting in pain, before she fired her splattershot pro in front of her, and nothing happened. She missed, wondering where they had gone to, when she suddenly got picked up off the ground.

"Eep!" she got tossed onto a bush, crushing the plant. The Tentatek CEO was relieved to have gotten a soft landing. They heard a loud clanging noise. ECO was being hit from multiple directions, and she was having a raging feeling boil up each second. Everyone was beginning to get beaten up. Being unable to see their enemies was a huge problem. None of them were able to attack, and their ink tanks were beginning to get broken as well. Agent 7 looked into the air, and her eyes went wide when she saw an ink strike straight their way. Either this was the most perfect timing in the world for help, or a poor decision to just splatter the entire area without a care.

"Uh oh… everyone, hold on!" Fulvous pushed a button on the rapid blaster she had. A bubbler shield appeared around her, and being so close to the others, everyone else was shielded as well. The physical attacks began bouncing off, doing nothing. The ink strike hit the ground, erupting in a giant purple explosion of ink that caught all of the cloaked possessed cultists off guard. They were all splattered in the wave of the mess. Thankfully Aero's group were safe, thanks to that bubbler that had been used.

"…please tell me we won't have to clean this mess up," Basil sighed in relief, glad they were safe. Everything around the group was covered in a layer of purple ink, including the house that belonged to the stubborn inkling they had splattered earlier.

"Depends on how bad we let Inkopolis get damaged," Aero stood up while rubbing her sore stomach. Her ink tank was broken. None of their ink tanks had survived.

"Hey!" a voice echoed. ECO smiled brightly, her chest light changing to green in happiness, as they saw Octoronia, who approached with Aureolin, Cobalt and Violet.

"Hahahaha! Oh, that felt great!" Violet maniacally laughed. He was the one who had launched that ink strike, and he surely enjoyed being able to spray his ink once more.

"Thank you for the rescue," ECO bowed to the non-tentacled inkling. Octoronia hugged her robotic sibling, glad she was alright.

"You're welcome!" Octoronia said happily.

"Baby, you know the best timing," Basil chuckled as Aureolin was making sure he was alright. Her boyfriend had a small gash on the back of his head, as if he had been hit with a rock, but otherwise, he was alright.

"Why are you guys over here?" Aero requested, wondering if they had been assigned to aid in evacuating the area as well. She was worried about her ex-husband, hoping he was alright. They could hear the roar of the Abraliopsis Morisii from all the way over here.

"We got assigned to run around with the spare weapons and ink tanks, and make sure everyone's able to keep fighting. It looks like you could use some new tanks," Cobalt explained. He had a collection of ink tanks on his back, each one of them filled with different colored ink. He had gotten stuck with carrying duty. His sister Auburn came over and happily took a few off his back, relieving him of the stress, and she began to switch the broken ink tanks out.

"Thanks for the rescue," Aero stated. They were not done yet, but they had gotten a good number of squids and other people evacuated. However, they had sadly splattered a good few just to force them to somewhere safer, and they had a lot more they needed to evacuate.

"I think we were too slow…" Violet exclaimed. Everyone was confused by his statement. They were seeing an odd horde approaching them. There was a mix of possessed cultists, but they had unfortunately taken possession of other inklings, and even jellyfish, crabs, and anyone unfortunate to run across them.

"N-no way! It's an army!" Aureolin gasped. ECO adjusted her goggles while making sure her slather blaster was prepared. Octoronia was trying to stay calm.

"Don't panic! We're a lot smarter than them! Keep together, and don't let them corner you," Octoronia ordered the best tactic she had in mind. As long as they stuck together, watched each other's backs and worked in good unison, this would be a cakewalk. One person with a roller could take on a wave of these possessed fools, unless they had more odd tricks up their sleeves. Being able to turn invisible was already a very scary ability.

The third team had done their best to keep as many of the possessed distracted as they could. Unfortunately they had done their job somewhat too well. They were now in a fight, surrounded by a big group of the possessed lunatics. Onyx and Umber had wound up being the leaders of this team right now, and they were done distracting and had begun fighting.

"How you guys holdin' up?" Umber called out to his group, unable to see, as five of the cultists were surrounding him. He spun around with his ink brush, unleashing dark red ink which splattered three of them easily. The other two however survived the attack. One grabbed his side and his weapon, stopping his movement, and the other jumped on his back.

"Grah!" Umber could not shake them off. One got shot with a burst of pink ink, followed by the sound of disturbing laughter of enjoyment. The dark red inkling watched as the other possessed cultist got punched in the face, being knocked off him before they got splattered by a burst of pink ink as well.

"You alright?" Onyx spoke up, having been the one to punch the possessed madcap off him.

"Ye-yeah. Just not as good with a brush as I thought I was," Umber chuckled, feeling relieved to have someone as strong as him watching his back.

"Then quit sucking, ya dimwit!" Rose roared, having helped save him. The club owner did not seem to have one care for how high his rank was in competitive turf wars.

"Gee… thanks for the motivation," Umber sarcastically responded, swinging his ink brush and sending out a wave of the red ink, splattering two possessed robed figures who were right behind her unaware self. Onyx rubbed his head, asking himself how he found himself in this situation.

"Ow!" Mauve was caught in a rough beating. Sadly enough, the construction worker had little experience with turf battles, and this was the closest thing to a turf war at the moment. It was like they were just splattering hordes of zombies that knew how to punch. Suddenly, the possessed people got splattered by a huge blast of dark pink ink. He saw Amaranth who was holding an inkzooka.

"Eh. This isn't the first time I've been surrounded before by a hordes of people wanting to beat me up," Amaranth claimed, firing another big blast of the inkzooka, splattering another group of the possessed cultists. They were all hoping that splattering them was the best way to free them of their possessions, and at least they would reappear at a hospital a long distance away from the town that was now becoming a dirty battlefield.

"Keep up the good work, guys," Onyx insisted as he pulled his Tentatek splattershot off his side before aiming it at the next approaching wave. Ridiculous for them, that for every possessed person they splattered, another appeared. He had to presume that a lot more were being possessed beyond the cultists now, and that was a worrying thought that made him fear for his girlfriend Aero's safety.

"We're fighting for a lot of lives today, but if you wind up getting possessed, you'll be splattered without a second thought," Umber added. As secondary leader, the only reason they needed two leaders in this team was because everyone in their group was not exactly the most reliable with decision making, but at least it was working out so far.

The battle raged on, as the Abraliopsis Morisii was destroying the ground under it, desperate to crush Callie and Fallow and just missing them, leaving great cracks on the concrete. The two of them had been keeping its attention after they had splattered most of the possessed cultists, all but the three cultists whose watery tentacles on their back stayed intact, and they were putting up a mean retaliation.

"Dang it! Those guys won't just take a hit!" Marie snarled. Every time she tried to fire her E-liter 3k, one of them would just throw off her aim. Maize was firing his splatling gun. Tens of yellow ink sprayed out. One of the cultists spun around, smacking a fraction of the ink aside with their water tentacles before they threw them at Agent 3, piercing his splatling gun.

"Wha-?!" Maize was in awe, seeing his splatling gun fall to pieces, demolished by those water tentacles. They had somehow gotten into his weapon, and broken all of the key components that had been keeping that weapon together.

"Do you have anything we can use to get rid of them?!" Marie requested. The yellow boy hesitantly nodded, reaching into his pocket before pulling out the cellphone bomb that Octoronia had created in the prison.

"Um… this?" Maize nervously suggested, seeing them begin to approach.

"That'll kill them, not splatter them!" the white inkling claimed. They weren't going to murder others just because they were possessed. The yellow squid nodded in agreement. However, he had an idea that could save them trouble.

"I don't have any plans on becoming a murderer, Marie! …err, not again, anyway…" Maize caught himself on that sentence, aware that it had not been that long since he was cleared of being Cyan's murderer. He pressed the big button on the side of the bomb before tossing it on the ground in front of the path where the possessed cultists were charging through. It suddenly exploded, creating a huge pit in the ground. It left a great, gaping hole which they all fell down, into the sewers below, their screams echoing.

"Smart move," Marie complimented. Maize, relieved, pulled the octo charger off his back, planning to save his splatterscope for last, in case somehow his weapon was broken. Once again, they suddenly heard a loud scream. Callie had gotten hit by one of the huge water creature's tentacles, sending her sliding across the ground, scraping and bruising her badly, her roller landing nearby her.

"Callie!" Maize and Marie said at once. At one glance though and they saw an infuriated Abraliopsis Morisii, sick of these games and thirsty for inkling blood. Fallow jumped over a swipe of its tentacle.

"Hah! You should know; you're too slow," the brain damaged squid rhymed in her usual cheerful self. She wanted to keep its attention on her, but she doubted she could keep it up much longer with how fast her energy was draining. The white sister wanted to go help her cousin, but Agent 3 stopped her.

"Wait a moment! We need get those ruby spheres. Callie will be fine, but I need you to work with me, alright?" Maize requested. Agent 2 bit her lip, but then nodded, aiming her E-liter 3k and activating her charger.

"Now aim for the crystal in its left arm, and shoot," Maize ordered while preparing his charger. She fired a strong burst of green ink that hit the arm, forcing some of the water to clear aside. Maize fired next, and a huge yellow ink pierced through the water that was not able to clean the green ink in time. The combined ink blasts sent the ruby crystal flying out of the Abraliopsis Morisii's body, shattering it on the ground.

"My… crystal…! You… shall suffer for this!" the monster spoke through Taupe's voice. It only had the two ruby spheres in its legs, not counting the one that was still in the grey inkling's body. Maize was having another idea now, as he got his octo charger ready.

"Alright, now you can go help Callie. Me and Fallow can get the other two easily," Maize insisted. The Squid Sister nodded, thankful for this, especially when she saw Callie having trouble trying to get back up. It looked like she might have hurt her leg on the fall.

"Please tell me, man. Do you have a plan?" Fallow rhymed in request as the Abraliopsis Morisii was grabbing some of the parts of concrete from the road, beginning to toss the debris at them. They both had to run aside to dodge it, the rubble hitting the ground and breaking into pieces.

"Get on the right side, sis! I'm going to break it in half!" Maize exclaimed.

"Uh?!" his sister was confused. If he had the ability to cut the watery monster in half, then she would love to watch it. The yellow inkling was beginning to run at the Abraliopsis Morisii, seeing it roar as it began to swing three of its watery tentacles at him.

"Whoa!" Maize jumped over the first one, before he was forced to do a dive roll to go under the next one, and then slid under the third one. He was panting wildly. He never imagined that all that training and exercise Captain Cuttlefish made him go through would come in handy. When he got underneath the creature's legs, he hit a button on the octo charger.

"Here we go!" Maize watched the tentacade rip up around him, surrounding him with huge tentacles as they appeared. They were ripping through the Abraliopsis Morisii. It was unable to react in time as the tentacles were ripping through it. This had forced both of the ruby spheres out of its legs. Fallow smiled, bashing the one crystal that fell toward her on the right side with her ink brush like it was a baseball, sending the ruby crystal flying through the air, shattering on the first piece of ground it came into contact with.

"Can you get that one?" Callie asked her cousin. The Squid Sister nodded, aiming her charger before firing. It hit the ruby sphere and sent it flying through the window of a nearby building, shattering both the glass of the window, and the gem itself. The Abraliopsis Morisii was beginning to flail and roar in agony. It smacked Maize away with its huge hand, an attack which tentacade did little to stop. His sister however was fast enough to catch him in her arms.

"D-did we get it?" Marie fearfully requested an answer. Sadly none of the four had any clue. They watched it start shrinking, looking to be severely wounded. The only ruby sphere left within it, was the one Taupe still had in his stomach. They were nearing the end of the fight, but Maize saw a menacing gaze from both the Abraliopsis Morisii and Taupe at the same time.

"Get back! Get back!" Maize shouted. The watery creature, now small, only had the water around Taupe left to its size. The Abraliopsis Morisii smashed its hands on the ground, and a wave of water erupted, sending out a huge wall of water. It sent all four of its enemies flying backwards, like it was a horrible tidal wave on a beach.

Maize gasped for breath once the water vanished. Marie was helping Callie up. They had gotten nearly washed down the road, but they had gotten lucky to not be sent even farther. Fallow was stuck to a street lamp, having grabbed on with her tentacles in the panic while spitting out water.

"…No way…" Maize panted, seeing a huge wall of water that surrounded the watery monster. It had sealed itself away from any form of attack. They did try shooting through the water, but the ink was immediately splashed off. The wall was too high to super jump over.

"Wha-what do we do now, Maize? It may be small, but how are we going to get past that?" Callie requested a plan. He had so far done great with leading them, and his plans all had worked so far. The yellow squid tossed off the extra ink tank that had run empty before he rested his octo charger down.

"I… I've got no idea…" Maize responded. Fallow had become too terrified to move from her spot. If they did not find a way to get to Taupe fast, then the watery creature would be able to call for help. There were so many of the possessed still remaining, and all of their friends were in danger, as much as everyone in Inkopolis was. If they did nothing, then it was all over from here. Suddenly he felt a hand on his back.

"I have an idea," Marie spoke up, holding her E-liter 3k. Callie was relieved to hear this, having to be leaning against the wall with how much pain her leg was in. However the devious look the white girl had on her face gave them a hint of worry. The two of them got close to the water wall.

"Sorry, Maize. But it's going to be all on you right now," she apologized. Maize had a bad feeling that he knew what her plan was, but he nodded.

"I'll do it… and I promise to come back alive," Maize reassured, aware of the worry she had. They had to go all in and break out everything they could, and all they had to do was find some way to break the ruby crystal in Taupe's stomach, and there seemed to be only one way.

"Get ready!" Marie hit a button on her E-liter 3k, activating its special ability. She quickly changed into a huge white kraken. Maize gulped before she wrapped her tentacle around him, picking him up with the new brute strength she had from activating this form. She swung her tentacle, tossing him up as hard as she could like a rocket. Maize went flying upwards, screaming.

"Wow… that actually looks like fun," Callie admitted.

"Don't get any ideas," Marie retorted not having any plans of playing toss up and catch with her cousin. Fallow frowned, having the same thoughts on her mind as well.

Maize was flying up high. It was astonishing how fast he was going up. He could feel the air breezing past him. He finally reached high up enough to be over the water wall. He pulled his splatterscope off his back before firing backwards. It gave him enough momentum to be over the wall.

"I'm coming, Taupe!" Maize shouted while he was beginning to fall, his charger charging up, ready to splatter the grey inkling. The Abraliopsis Morisii saw him, and it bubbled for a brief second.

"You struggle in vain against the current of the river!" the monster shouted. Its small water tentacles went flying up toward the yellow inkling as he fell. One hit his hand, cutting it deeply, and then another cut his side. One wrapped around his shoulder as another hit him right in the face, breaking his goggles and sending them flying off. His ink tank got destroyed, as well as his splatterscope. Each of the tentacles were attempting to halt him.

"I don't care!" Maize caught one of the water tentacles in his mouth, biting into it as he dodged the next one. He finally got right up toward the Abraliopsis Morisii. That one moment, everything seemed to pause like everything in the world was frozen. Agent 3 dug down his fist at full force from his fall, into Taupe's face. It was his only method left without having a weapon. It sent the possessed cult leader falling onto the ground. Maize was freed of any of the tentacle's grips as he fumbled onto the ground as well. Now he was trapped in this water wall that surrounded him and his enemy.

"I'm not going to let you kill anyone else!" Maize stood up, just as the Abraliopsis Morisii regained its footing, but then it received a hard uppercut to the jaw. It glared down at Maize before raising its fist up, returning the punch to him overhead. Maize grit his teeth, delivering another hard blow to the chest of the creature.

"You are doing nothing, but delaying the inevitable!" the water creature spoke through Taupe before it brought its elbow down on Maize's back, sending out a shock-wave of pain through him. The yellow squid grabbed the water monster's arm before tossing it over his shoulder, sending him flying up, and flopping back first onto the ground.

"The inevitable?! I promised to make sure that squid you took over will be alright! That's the inevitable I'm trying to achieve!" Maize shouted, seeing the Abraliopsis Morisii stand up once more. The yellow squid dug his feet into the ground, throwing a hard left hook and punching it in the jaw.

"I have to break another promise to do this!" Maize roared, referring to the promise he made to his mother long ago, the one where he promised to not hurt another person if he could help it. This was a matter that seemed far out of control, but it still felt like there were other options available. Suddenly, Agent 3 felt a few of the water tentacles wrap around his legs before he got thrown into the wall of water face first. He groaned in agony.

"One promise? You're fighting, for just that?! You are causing me so much pain… destroying each of my hearts over feeble words?" the monster questioned, finding this ridiculous. Those ruby spheres were what the water creature described as hearts, and each one shattering did nothing but hurt it badly. Maize was panting as he spat on the ground, getting back up, ripping the tentacles off from around his ankles.

"Know this. I'm not just a squid. I'm Maize Dagenhart, Agent 3! I've made promises to… well, tons of people, and I helped change their lives doing it. That is what a Dagenhart does. When you're defeated, I promise this world is going to change… and for a good cause!" Maize spoke, and then he charged straight for the Abraliopsis Morisii. The monster unleashed a barrage of its sharp tentacles, attempting to stop him. One impaled the yellow inkling's shoulder. Another hit his leg. It did not stop him, though. All his friends could do was watch the fight break out in horror.

"You entered a battle, but there was no chance of victory for you. All you did was delay my efforts. As a favor for halting my progress, I shall kill you slowly," Abraliopsis Morisii exclaimed as another tentacle impaled Maize's side. The inkling was still coming for him, despite being slowed down. His blood dripped and ran down his body and onto the ground. One step at a time, he slowed down, but he could not afford to care how deep his enemy's tentacles cut him.

"I… won't die…" he coughed up a splatter of blood, grabbing the tentacle in his shoulder and ripping it out, watching it retract. Maize took another few steps as he grabbed the ones in his lower body, ripping them out also. It felt like a serrated blade being ripped from his flesh. When he removed them, the Abraliopsis Morisii threw another set of ten tentacles at him.

"I've got too many promises to keep!" Maize declared as he continued his approach, dodging most of the tentacles. Each one that missed seemed to send the water creature into a steadily increasing panic. At only a short moment, the yellow inkling was right in front of the water monster's face, and he delivered a strong blow to Taupe's stomach. Everything froze again. He saw that look in the Abraliopsis Morisii's eyes. It was the look of despair, as each of the water tentacles splattered onto the ground.

"You… you've killed me…" the possessed monster weakly spoke. Maize's strong punch was enough to break the ruby sphere inside the cultists' leader's stomach.

"…I know that… and I don't feel good about it…" Maize stated before gaining a grin.

"…but I sure don't feel bad about it, either," he chuckled, watching as the water creature began to sink into the ground. It was losing control of its true form, and the water wall was beginning to fall. It had lost all of its powers now, and was going to soon lose its control on Taupe, too.

"Before you go… why? Let me know why you wiped out the humans?" Maize requested just one answer for this. After all, it was safe to presume that it was involved with the great disaster that befell the world and flooded it, wiping out most lifeforms that existed eons ago.

"I had no hand in this. I have been slumbering within my egg for thousands of years. However, it appears my awakening was short lived," the Abraliopsis Morisii said his last words before suddenly Taupe fell out of the water creature's body. The grey inkling, unconscious as he was now, collapsed onto the ground, and just like that, the water monster splashed onto the ground, just turning into a puddle of water. Maize sighed, unsure whether to be happy that the monster did not remotely kill any humans at all, or be upset that the mystery of the great disaster was still unknown. He considered maybe it would be best if that remained a mystery.

"Heh… I kept my promise to you Taupe…" Maize weakly said to the unconscious grey squid. Maize had lost so much blood from that great showdown. He fell onto his knees, his eyelids getting heavy. His eyesight was getting blurry as he saw a vision of Callie Marie and Fallow rushing toward him to help him.

"I'm sorry, mom…" the yellow inkling weakly spoke, before he fell onto the floor, unconscious, as his blood pooled around him.


	51. The Calm After The Storm (End)

**Authors Note: Hi all, I want you all to know. There is one more chapter after this, and I hope you enjoy. Take care! Leave a Review about what you thought of this Fic.**

Maize could hear nothing more than a slow, steady beeping noise. Darkness was everywhere, in every direction. However, his eyes began to slowly open with each passing beep. He groaned in pain, struggling to sit up.

"Wh-where am I?" Maize asked, holding his chest in fear. He wondered if he was now just a soul not long after going to the afterlife. However, his fears were quickly alleviated when he looked around. He was in a hospital room, lying on the bed. Two IVs were hooked up to his arm, and all of his wounds were bandaged and heavily treated. Agent 3 could see a collection of flowers on the nearby table, but so much that they were in the floor. He saw a pair of glasses resting nearby with a small note attached.

"We got you new ones. Get well soon. Sincerely, Callie and Marie."

Maize noticed a few plush toys as 'get well soon' gifts next to the flowers, all lying around. He pulled himself out of the bed, putting the glasses on before he approached the window, seeing the bright day before him. It looked like it was only a little bit past nine in the morning.

"…I've never felt so great," Maize smiled, just before he heard a clattering noise. He looked to his right to see Fallow, who stood there with a now dropped tray of food, but her expression differed when she saw her brother standing tall and looking well.

"Maize?! Oh, my brave brother, Maize! I can't believe what I see in my gaze!" Fallow looked ready to burst out into tears. Her little brother had no time to react before she had tackled him into a hug that was tight enough to send his body shock waves of pain. His injuries had not completely healed yet.

"He-hey, Fallow…! How long have I been out cold?" Maize lightly laughed before the embrace ended. His sister pulled out his very cellphone that she had been taking care of, presenting it to him. His eyes went wide at what he read on the date.

"What?! I've been asleep for a… a month?!" Agent 3 asked in disbelief.

"Yes…" his sister nodded. That great showdown with the Abraliopsis Morisii had injured him quite gravely to the point that he needed multiple surgeries. The wounds that his body took had sent him into a deep coma. It had done nothing but make every one of his friends upset and worried about him.

"Bro… I don't know what I'd do if you died… if you did, nobody would let it slide," Fallow sobbed in her usual rhyme. This was heartbreakingly strong enough to break her usual cheerful personality, and severely, too. Maize patted her head, giving her that big bright smile of his.

"I promised I'd come back alive, didn't I?" Maize chuckled. She watched him reach down and take out his IVs. He saw some clothes on a nearby chair, which were brought by one of his dear friends in case he woke up so he could change out of the hospital gown. He was eager to get out of this place while he could, not wanting to waste any more time in medical care than he already had.

"Sorry, Fallow, but why don't you head on home and get some rest? I need to go check up on some things on my own," Maize requested, wanting to go explore and see how much had changed in a month's time. To him, it felt like he had been asleep for only ten minutes. In which case, time flew at the speed of light.

"Aright. I'm just glad you're alright and not too hyper… oh, also. Do you need help changing out of your diaper?" Fallow asked. Maize quirked an eyebrow, though gained a quick blush that nearly turned his whole face red, realizing what she meant. He had been in a coma for a month, and he had not gotten a catheter inserted into him. He quickly put two and two together on that one.

"No! Ju-just go home!"

After another awkward thirty minutes spent in the hospital getting himself checked out, Maize found himself back on the streets of Inkopolis, wearing a blue and yellow striped shirt and green shorts. He brushed his one tentacle to the side, looking around.

"The skies are clear… the birds are singing… the flowers are blooming… Nowhere else to go but the plaza," he chuckled. That was the only place he thought was logical to visit, hoping that not too many things had drastically changed. He was happy to know that all his friends were around to visit and give him support when he was stuck in his comatose state, and he was glad to know they all had been there for him just like he had been there for all of them in the past. It was nice to know his good deeds did not go unnoticed. The yellow squid made off to the right, heading toward the main plaza, ready to see how things had been the last month.

Maize was noticing something as he walked further. People were looking at him, either pointing him out to their friends or whispering amongst themselves. That was not the only oddity right now. The yellow inkling could see octolings in broad daylight. They were not even trying to disguise themselves, and instead were wandering Inkopolis in a carefree manner. Some were even with other inklings. It was all an amazing sight. However they seemed to be doing the same thing and whispering and pointing him out. It was confusing, but he ignored it as he neared the plaza.

"This place is more active than ever…" Maize stated. The stages were set up for splatfest. There were octolings and inklings everywhere. The shops were all full, and the café looked like it was getting more business than ever. He looked at the huge flat screen television, seeing a report coming on live from the Squid Sisters studio. There he saw Callie and Marie appear on the television. He noticed that Callie had a brace on her leg. It was still healing from that war a month ago, and Marie seemed to be forcing her smile for the camera today.

"Hey there, squids and octopi! With the new splatfest starting tomorrow night, you'd best sign up for what team you want!" Callie exclaimed, advertising the usual splatfest where her and her cousin were supposed to be against one another for who to side with on each splatfest. Maize couldn't believe what he was hearing, and he was still unable to. Octolings were in Inkopolis, and no one seemed to care.

"Yeah! This splatfest is about what's cuter; squishies or blobbies. Personally, I think blobbies are really adorable with all their little tentacles," Marie exclaimed in addition to her cousin. The white inkling's depression could easily be seen through that fake smile.

"Really? My son lives up to the name squishie. He's as soft and as sweet as a marshmallow!" Callie retorted, following the script as usual. At this point none of them had any care that Inkopolis knew she had a son, thanks to that camera man they had long since fired for showing him on the air. Maize had no idea what team he was going for, but he was leaning toward team squishie. Maize decided to head into Ammo Knights to try and buy a new splatterscope. He remembered his past weapon had been destroyed by the Abraliopsis Morisii. Once he stepped through the door, the bell rung, alerting the clerk of the entering new customer.

"Hello! Welcome to Ammo Knights-…! …Maize!" he suddenly heard, looking at the counter. ECO hopped over it, running up to hug Agent 3.

"ECO? What are you doing here? What's going on?" Maize was confused already than happy, requesting to know what happened, while the mechanical octarian was quickly sending out a text message to her sister to let her know.

"I work here now, Maize. You see… after that huge war, Mollusk Metropolis needed help repairing the damages those possessed lunatics caused. DJ Octavio and Captain Cuttlefish acted as representatives for us, and with the Squid Sisters' help, Inkopolis's leaders gladly agreed to aid with the matter," ECO explained everything. Inkopolis's repairs were easier, but damage was damage, and sadly the octarians' homeland had taken even more aggressive damage from the assault.

"Wow… they convinced them to trust octolings?" Maize could not deny that it was impressive. He saw a green tint on her chest light, representing her joy. However she did seem sad, recalling the events back then, considering the boy she had a crush on almost died.

"All of the agents and others that helped in that fight stepped up and elaborated the situation… but it was the officials stepping up that tilted it in agreement. They said octolings had turf wars as well, and it would be gruesome to leave us to fend for ourselves," ECO explained. Maize was quite surprised. He never expected the turf war officials to care about anything. Technically it was involved with more turf wars, but still, the officials' statements and opinions were none to be taken lightly. Everyone took them seriously, even if they did not play in turf wars.

"This is great! And congrats on the job employment… I need to go see the Squid Sisters," Maize stated. He assumed Octoronia was back at her home in Mollusk Metropolis to fix up the damage the cultists had caused to her home. However, before Agent 3 could leave, he got grabbed by the shoulder.

"Maize… you aren't interested in me… are you?" ECO asked out of the blue. He looked at her in confusion, but was aware she was saddened to know this, but his eyes were on someone else. Still, the yellow inkling wanted to be honest with her, aware she will at least understand.

"Yeah… sorry. It's someone really close to me… but I'd like you to do me a favor and keep that love emotion of yours on," Maize responded. This confused the mechanical octoling as she rubbed her head. She found it as a worthless emotion now. All it did was either get her in trouble or in love with someone who she had no chance to have.

"Why? All it does is hurt me," ECO retorted sadly, deciding this was going to be her break for this morning anyway. She saw him gain a smile.

"That's the point of love, and you wouldn't be complete without it," Maize answered, that optimism of his once again shining through strongly. She thought over this for a moment before letting out a sigh, nodding.

"Alright… it's hard not to smile with you around, anyway… but, I'll leave it on… if you promise me something," she stated. He had a bad feeling about whatever it was she wanted him to promise her, but he nodded.

"Sure. What is it?"

"Promise me that you'll tell her you love her," ECO explained. Maize blinked, unsure what to think on that, rubbing his tentacle nervously. After all, he had already nearly died once, and he felt bad for leaving the person he was in love with concerned with him.

"I guess it's fair. I promise to tell them the next time I see them," Maize promised. After all, he was going to see them soon.

"Thank you, Maize. I'll see you later," ECO smiled, bidding him goodbye since she had to get back to work, letting the yellow squid leave. Agent 3 needed to go visit the Squid Sisters, and he could only assume that all of his friends who had aided in the matter were either back to their normal lives or trying to take it easy to recover from the massive event.

The Squid Sisters had finished the splatfest update in their studio for the selected time and stages on the turf war rotations. Marie went over to her usual seat at the table by the window, sitting down tiredly, Callie taking her seat across from her cousin.

"Why are you so down Marie? …I mean more down than usual," Callie corrected herself. For the last month, the white inkling was depressed and it was understandable. The black inkling herself had not been in any better of a mental state, but for some reason, a day after the new month started Marie began to grow even more depressed than she was. Marie decided to be honest with her cousin on the matter.

"Sorry, Callie… it's just… he's been asleep for a month… and I can't stop thinking of him," Marie apologized, explaining what had been on her mind lately. Her cousin had another memory on her mind, back when they talked about when Marie wanted to have a squishie. It had been a month since then as well.

"…did you ever decide on if you were going to go through with the in vitro fertilization?" Callie asked.

"I dunno…" Marie admitted. She had not changed her mind in the last month, but she still felt unsure about it. She had agreed to make the unconscious inkling be the donor to save her the trouble. They heard a knocking on the door before it opened up, revealing the guard who usually watched the entrance of the studio.

"'ey, Squid Sisters. You got a visitor. Should I let'em in?" the guard asked. Marie paid him little mind, looking out through the glass wall nearby, seeing a few of their fans waving happily to them, the white inkling returning the wave half-heartedly.

"Sure. We could do with a friendly visit," Callie nodded, letting the guard open the door and lead the person inside. The black inkling gasped in shock.

"Hey… Callie and Marie," Maize happily greeted his two friends. They both have the same looks across their faces. They almost thought they were seeing a zombie. Callie immediately leapt toward him and hugged him. He was happy to have so many warm embraces today.

"You're awake! I can't believe it… You had us all worried," Callie exclaimed as the embrace ended. Maize felt bad that the big fight had gotten Callie's leg injured, but he guessed it wouldn't take long before that brace came off and she would be back to normal.

"Sorry about that," Maize smiled when he saw Marie come to him, but then he received a hard slap to the face. He somewhat expected to receive this. He kept that smile, despite the hit he took.

"You jerk! You promised to come back alive!" the white inkling shouted at him, visibly upset.

"And I did. It just took a while," Maize warmly replied. Callie was just surprised that the scene had suddenly broken out before her.

"When the ambulance came to get you, you were dead! They rushed you off! And like a jerk, you left us just to be worried!" Marie explained. Maize had no idea that he had wound up somehow nearly dying from the blood loss along the way to the hospital. The paramedics had thankfully revived him and got him stable. He fixed his glasses.

"Heh… sorry. I didn't mean to break that promise and worry you guys," Maize apologized, aware that he had made that promise and doubted being in a coma for a month helped at all. His smile got bigger when he then recalled that promise he made to ECO, and nearly dying put a lot of things in perspective for him, but he had no regrets on his actions. He was going to keep being helpful as long as he could no matter the cost, and confessing his feelings should not become close to another regret.

"Marie, these last few weeks… err, months, I've started to feel odd around you. These missions we've had together have taught me one thing. I like you a lot," Maize explained, trying to be brave over this, but the words didn't come to mind. Marie slowly started to feel confused, taking in a few breaths to calm. All the while, Callie was recording them with her new cellphone, right on their backs.

"…you like me? Is this because I agreed to let you be the donor to help have a squishie?" Marie asked. He put up his hands defensively. He couldn't believe he had forgotten about that.

"N-no! You don't see me as stupid for my promises. You go with the flow, and no matter what, you help me out, no matter how bad the situation is..." Maize started. However one thing immediately came to mind. He put his hand in hers.

"I also heard about what happened. You helped change the world. Like a Dagenhart, you helped inklings and octolings get along after saving a lot of lives. You helped me fulfill my tradition," Maize finished, that bright smile shining once again. Marie had no idea how to respond. She had forgotten about his whole reason behind his promises, and he was positively radiant over the matter.

"…our lives wouldn't have been the same without you. We're all being seen as heroes, now. You're our hero though, Maize, and we are to everyone in Inkopolis. I like you too… the whole time you were in the hospital, I've been promising things like you did on missions," Marie exclaimed. Maize felt amused, imagining the white Squid Sister making promises on missions while helping others as a funny sight, but he was glad she kept him alive in some way, even while he was unconscious.

"You're so cheesy, y'know?" Maize commented. That one thing he was told all the time bit back.

"…y-yes I am cheesy! You're cheesy, too!" Marie blushed, poking his chest, though it didn't seem to faze him as much as it flustered her. The atmosphere of the room steadily calmed down as she backed off a bit, regaining her composure.

"Fine. I'll give our relationship a shot," she agreed to try dating the yellow squid. Maize jumped a bit in joy.

"Great! …err… wait, did you still want to have a squishie?" Agent 3 asked. Agent 2 opened her mouth, wanting to scold him, but all she could do was bury her face in her hands in embarrassment. They hadn't even been on a date yet, and already he was talking about having a squishie, leaving out the whole confrontation the two had back when she wanted to have one in the first place. Now Marie was conflicted whether or not to still go through with it.

"Can you say one thing without making the moment awkward?!" Marie wondered aloud. They both heard Callie break out into a fit of laughter before they saw her cellphone aimed at them. They both knew now that she was recording them.

"Wa-wait a second! Delete that right now! Or you'll regret it!" Marie threatened.

"Too slow," her cousin shook her head, hitting a button that uploaded the video up to a backup media storage cloud online. Maize sighed, aware that a fight would break out soon if he did nothing.

"He-hey! How about we go grab a bite to eat? On me, of course… I have some ideas I'd like to talk about involving the Special Squid Services," Maize requested. The two took a moment before agreeing with that. The three headed out of the studio to go get some food to eat. With a new relationship forged, and the world being changed slightly by bringing two entirely different races together in peace to help repair damage to both cities, the Special Squid Services had worked hard, and they still had a lot to handle in its future. Maize had finally fulfilled his decision for the tradition. However, he wished his mother could see him now. Maize wondered where Apricot was, but he decided to not let his depressing thoughts weigh him down. He just wanted to go forward. The future was bright, all of them had a lot of inklings and octarians to help, and with the help of other agents, and they vowed to make sure it stayed that way

 **The End...**


	52. Epilogue

**Authors Note: Before you begin reading this epilogue, the last chapter of the Special Squid Services. I want to say some things. First of all, I never ever planned to make this a daily update type of story, I was inspired to start this story by TheLuckyMiltank, And Tehreign I owe a lot, for introducing me to a great chat of authors that also helped me a lot, I'm glad to know them all. When I started writing I just couldn't stop. So after I had 4 chapters the day after the first chapter was posted. And I am glad I did, I made sure this story always was updated once a day. Even when I was in the hospital.**

 **I'd like to thank The-Irish-Clover of Deviantart, for helping me proofread. I'd like to thank WarioSuperstar for all his constructive criticism, ever since I started this fic he's been giving me more and more criticism, to help me improve. Which I am grateful for, it helps me improve. And I doubt I'd of fixed half of my mistakes without him. I was happy when writing this story, I poured my enthusiasm into it. I love Splatoon so much, the world the possibilities it gives so many ideas to expand upon. Which I tried my best to do here, I wanted to make every character memorable, whether they be minor or major. Did I succeed at that? I don't know, will I make a sequel to this fic? Definitely, but not anytime soon. Will my next story be a splatoon fic? You bet, I already have part of that written. My enthusiasm, my passion for writing. I thank you all for reading this story, and following it. I hope you all have a good day, and take care. Sorry for the long Authors Note.**

Another two months had passed as fast as they had come. The streets of Inkopolis were nearly all coated with leaves that had fallen from their branches. The season of autumn had begun to take its effect, not that it detoured any of the inklings or octolings at all. One figure in particular was walking through the streets. She was wearing a scarf around her neck with a green wool cap around her head, and she was wearing a white shirt under her coat and sweatpants. The older squid was smiling, looking around to see all the various aged squids and octopi enjoying the bundles of leaves. It was a nice sight to see. The two cities had started to get along quite well. She was heading for a certain club after passing around the corner on Mudskipper Street the woman saw a bright flashing sign and a lot of people trying to get into the club.

"Pardon me," she made her way through the crowd. The two front door guards stopped her.

"Back in the line, lady," they ordered. She rummaged around her coat pocket and pulled out a golden sand dollar that used to signify membership of the club.

"Oh… uhh, sorry, ma'am. Didn't realize you were MVP. Welcome to Sand Heights," the guard stepped aside. She pocketed the golden item before continuing inside. The club had a different atmosphere to it. Now things were slightly darker in tone. There was the sound of smooth jazz playing through the air, and the place seemed packed. The club had decided to no longer be as private and shady as before and change it to where the people who wielded the golden sand dollars just took priority in lines for Sand Heights, instead of being the exclusive members. Now anyone could get inside.

The woman focused on one table in particular, which seated Rose, Auburn and Cobalt. All three of them appeared to just be trying to unwind after a long set of turf wars earlier. They were all enjoying some spaghetti and drinks the club had really kicked it up a lot in terms of service

"Excuse me. You're the manager correct?" the older squid requested, gaining all three of their attentions. The woman looked like she was at least fifty years old. The club owner raised an eyebrow, swallowing her mouthful of food.

"Go ahead, ya guys. I'll deal with the old broad," Rose insisted her friends go on without her. They were going to when the woman spoke up.

"I'd prefer to speak to all three of you. I'd also prefer if you just called me broad," she stated. The trio did not seem to have any problems with this. They weren't in the mood to stop eating midway. However, Auburn and Rose seemed to be the only two who were taking this seriously, like a health inspector had just kicked in the door to raid the place.

"So what is it you need to talk to us about?" the pink squid requested her to go on, glad to perk up her ears.

"You're all members for Special Squid Services, right?" she asked the first of a few questions.

"Heh, yeah! I'm Agent 8 now," Cobalt smiled, those big sharp teeth of his not seeming to care how full his mouth was. The older inkling gained a small smile herself from seeing him like this.

"I'm Agent 9," Auburn added.

"And I'm 10. Can ya get on with what you need us to help ya with?" Rose stated, presuming that she was here to request help personally instead of over the website. The Special Squid Services had grown in numbers and had accumulated a grand lot of new agents, all of who so far had happily started doing their jobs with no complaints, aside from when things went crazy, then there were nothing but complaints.

"It's nice to meet you. Can you tell me how the service has helped you?" she requested. That question confused them, wondering why this old woman wanted to know more about the Special Squid Services' progress. Rose was about to call for security, but Auburn motioned her friend to relax, aware of how uncomfortable the club manager got when being interrogated.

"Oh! My brother was missing and I requested help. Before I know it, Agent 3 was over and had promised everything would be fine. Later that night, he showed right back up with my brother," Auburn explained. She hated to lie to an elder, even if her friend and sibling did not exactly share the same demeanor on the matter of respecting elders. Cobalt was stuffing his mouth and the other was tapping her fingers along the table, paranoid.

"Yeah. She blackmailed me for free labour," Cobalt pointed to Rose without hesitation to remind her of the events back then.

"He-hey! We made amends, ya dork! But yeah… after Agent 3 beat some sense into me… I'unno, after what that yellow squid did to me, I had to track these two down to apologize, and we wound up being friends. Now they're partial owners to the club as well," Rose finished explaining. After all of this, now they were all proud agents, glad to help out others whenever they could.

"I see…" the elder stood up from the table.

"Hope we were of help," the light blue boy said with a smile.

"You were young ones. That smile of yours reminds me of my son's. I hope you have a good day," the old woman bid them goodbye after stating the memory of her son. She began to leave the club, letting Agents 8, 9 and 10 go back to their meals.

"Sheesh… what was that about? Was she a cop?" Rose muttered in worry.

"Hey, it's not like you've got anything illegal going on here anymore… do you?" Auburn quirked an eyebrow to the nervous club owner.

"Haha! Ahh… I'm glad to have you two in my life," Cobalt happily spoke up, finding the scene very funny to him, though he doubted Rose would ever be able to give up committing at least minor crimes, as long as no one got hurt. They really had little care for it, or at least the blue inkling did. His sister, on the other hand, not so much.

The old woman had taken two hours to head to another part of Inkopolis a part that could really only be referred to as a rough part of the city, mostly because a lot of potential in the land there got taken out fast and changed into prisons to hold criminals. No city was without its flaws, and the Great Barrier Reef Prison was probably the biggest one of the bunch. She went through the check points within.

"Alright, just step through the scanner. You have an appointment for who you're visiting?" the security guard working there asked as she was letting the scan go on to make sure there were no weapons on her.

"Yes, I'm visiting Arylide," she responded. He scribbled down a few writings on his clipboard as the scanner gave the indication that she was clean.

"Alright, ma'am. You got thirty minutes. We'll have him there in a second," he pointed her ahead to the visitor's area for the prison.

"Thank you," she then headed toward there, seeing the usual set up for this prison, which was about five Plexiglas windows set up with phones on the sides. She approached and took a seat, waiting patiently. It only took around a minute before the familiar Arylide appeared, wearing a blank white prison jumpsuit. He approached, taking his own seat and pulling the phone off the wall, while she did the same.

"Well, I didn't expect to get any visits from you. Are you here to pay my bail? You're about a month late for my trial," Arylide spoke in his snarky tone, seeing her shake her head, not taking this as fun of a visit as he was seeing it.

"This is the last time I'm going to be near this prison. It might be my last trip through Inkopolis, as well," she said, before delivering a menacing glare.

"You murdered a child. That's unforgivable, you angler," she stated. Agent 3's father chuckled.

"I've already been given two life sentences. Now you decided to come here to give me a scolding, too?" Arylide requested her to get to the point. He saw her tap the glass. That gaze of hers was piercing him quite immensely.

"Tell me your real sentence. I know you didn't even get one life sentence," she spoke. He rolled his eyes, giving in.

"Fine, I'll talk. I'm going to be given a lethal injection in two months. They believe my murder was very premeditated. Not having any of my family in court to act as character witnesses helped nothing either," Arylide explained that he did not have much longer to live. These white jumpsuits were given to the prisoners on death row.

"I was at your trial. I'd say I'm sorry for you, but you've had this coming for a while. Is there anything you want to say to me before I go? Or do you at least have any regrets?" the older girl requested, letting him think deeply on this. Arylide had come to terms with his inevitable fate, if he had to pick between life behind bars or death, he would gladly choose the life behind bars. Sadly that option wasn't up to his choice. Trials in Inkopolis only lasted for three days since they had to be processed fast.

"Yeah. I got a big regret, for how long I stayed married," Arylide said. She put the phone back on the receiver and got up from her chair, taking in a deep breath to calm herself.

"I regret that, too…" she nodded before beginning to walk away. She had only spent twelve minutes in there at most, and now Arylide was stuck awkwardly in the room, waiting for the time to pass so he could go back to his cell.

The old squid had left the Great Barrier Reef prison, and then she had taken a bus all the way to Inkopolis plaza, where she was noticing that the plaza was booming as usual today with a lot of squids and octopi who were ready to play in any turf war available, or just to hang out in general. Her focus was on the new shop that was recently set up alongside the rest of the Booyah Base. It was named 'Pawn Planners', a title that indicated a chess theme going on. The elder squid approached the store, caring little that the front door had a 'closed' sign on it, since the door was unlocked. She made her way inside.

"Nooo! You put it in the wrong place!" one voice whined.

"So-sorry! Sorry! I'll get it out!" another panicked voice exclaimed. The elder squid hoped she had not walked into an odd situation. The inside of the store was quite small, but there were a good few amiibo stocked as well for sale to both octolings and inklings. There were various miniature models of turf war locations, too. This was a store made to sell strategic plans or to let people come in and play with their amiibo to set up plans for upcoming turf wars. On the window, there was a poster reading 'Supported by the Special Squid Services'. It seemed that they were a popular enough group now to help advertise.

"Hello?" the elder squid called out, only to hear the sound of tools clattering.

"Grah! I can't even take a nap without you two breaking everything!" another angry voice spoke before she saw the door behind the counter fly open, and two figures quickly fell out and onto the ground, before out stomped a familiar octoling.

"Oh. Uh… sorry, we're closed right now," it was Octoronia, and she looked very tired. She approached the counter, the elder squid approaching instead of turning away.

"I came to talk about the Special Squid Services," she stated. Octoronia smiled. And out sprung up her sister, ECO, and the medicine maker Amaranth from beside her. They were the two who had gotten tossed out of the back after that racket of noise.

"A mission? With pleasure!" ECO gladly allowed the elder in, despite the closing hours, her emotional cortex glowing bright green in enthusiasm.

"My, you're a feisty one," the elder squid smiled, glad to have some good reliable youth.

"But we had work to do…" Amaranth sighed, seeming disappointed. He wanted to work with the pair of octarians more right now than do a mission.

"Don't worry. I'm only here to talk for a moment," the elder reassured that they could go back to whatever they were doing after she was done.

"So are you all agents?" she popped the first question. All three nodded.

"Yes! I'm Agent 4, Octoronia, and this is my sister, ECO," Octoronia introduced the two of them, her mechanical sibling bowing slightly to the elder.

"Agent 5. It's nice to meet you," the metallic octoling hummed.

"I'm Amaranth, Agent 11. What do you need to talk to us about?" Amaranth requested. The three were all ears to the elder. She was glad to have some nice people to talk to for once who actively welcomed her.

"I want to know how the Special Squid Services helped you all," she requested the same thing that she asked from Agents 8, 9 and 10. The trio looked to each other unsure where to begin they had done so much with the Special Squid Services more than they had done for them.

"Well… I met one of their agents through the founder of the website, when my sister was kidnapped… or robotnapped. Agent 3 had no care about the odds or how many were against us. He just needed a weapon in his hand and he was ready to go," Octoronia explained how Maize had helped her. This elder was specifically looking for information on him, and only him it appeared.

"Yeah, and after I was saved, he offered us to become agents, and we gladly accepted. However, we've all been through a lot," ECO continued for her sister, letting the light pink squid boy beside them go next.

"I couldn't go a day without my pain medication. When my boss was taken to jail, I thought I was finished, but that yellow squid promised me that things would be fine. So I made sure they would be and made my own little variation of the medicine. Now I'm looking to be a billionaire by the end of the year," Amaranth explained. He had become a rich man now that he had created an efficient pain killer. The scar on his arm from part of his muscle being cut out no longer brought him any discomfort.

"And together, we're working on something great!" ECO added before Agent 11 went back toward the door.

"Hey, Taupe! You can come out! You don't have to be shy!" Amaranth called out. The elder squid quirked an eyebrow, but was happy to hear how they were doing so far. She saw an odd sight, the grey inkling coming from the back room. It was, indeed, Taupe, the leader of the defeated cultists. However, his head stubs now had new bionic tentacles attached.

"Oh my… you've certainly suffered a lot, I see," the older woman commented.

"…I… did…" Taupe nodded, showing a smile. He had sharp teeth once again, though they seemed made out of another material instead like dentures.

"I got a lot of people hurt. I was willing to punish myself after what I've done, so I became the guinea pig for them to test, so we can help make things right. I promised I would, after all," Taupe chuckled, shaking his head. Maize had really gotten to him after their fateful encounter.

"We made mechanical tentacles for those missing the most important limbs to any squid or octopi!" ECO happily chimed.

"And with these dentures made with Tentatek material, we're helping replace the teeth they let be taken out," Octoronia added, pointing Taupe out like he was a living skeleton, but this was what Taupe believed he deserved. Back in court, none of the cultists received punishment. They were all able to get out with only fines, because they pleaded insanity, and no one doubted them for a second when they heard they had their tentacles cut off, all but Taupe himself.

"I was looking to get a life sentence, but Agent 3 acted as my character witness and attested to my change of heart and mind, and got me the insanity plea," Taupe explained. With his defeat and reformation aside, the grey squid was out to help others as well and fix the damage he had caused.

"So you're Agent 12?" the elder squid giggled. He seemed a little embarrassed at that comment, but he nodded.

"Sure… I'm Taupe Lackey Blomgrum. Agent 12, though I do not go on missions as often as other agents," Taupe spoke his full name.

"Wait… your last name's Blomgrum?" ECO chirped.

"Isn't that an expensive lamp?" Octoronia added to her sister's confusion. Amaranth was more focused on the metal tentacles to make sure they were working right. The four of them were putting their heads together to help repair any damage that Taupe had caused, and also help improve technology and medicine if they could. The elder inkling just happily shook her head before leaving, letting the group of four friends go back to their work.

The older squid had made her way up the steps of Inkopolis plaza, heading for the studio. When she got to the entrance, there were two others who were bickering with the security guard of the front door.

"I've been here for five years. I'm not falling for whatever ya say until you gimme your ID," the guard stated.

"Now look here! This is my fiancé you're insulting! She is the CEO of Tentatek!" Onyx roared, an annoyed Aero standing beside him. She had forgotten her wallet, and thus her identification and proof of her position of power were missing. They were here to talk to the owner of the media station about camera prices and other topics related, but this guard was too stubborn.

"Pardon me. You two are members of the Special Squid Services, correct?" the old squid spoke up, breaking into the fight. The three looked at her, the door guard relieved.

"I'm Aero, CEO of Tentatek Corporation. And this is the best bodyguard alive, Onyx. We're Agents 13 and 14," Aero introduced them both. Ever since they had become agents, things had been a lot more relaxing, now that they were able to take breaks from the stress of their jobs respectively. If anything, now that they were the Special Squid Services' biggest investors and supporters, they had gotten so much more business. Oddly enough, the Tentatek Corporation's future was looking quite bright.

"Do you have a mission for us?" Onyx quirked, liking the idea of getting away from this aggravating door guard. The elder squid shook her head.

"I'm just curious to know how the Special Squid Services has affected your lives…" she stated the same thing she wanted to know from every agent she knew and could find. The light blue inkling seemed more than happy to answer, loosening the tie of her business suit.

"Well, it's kind of a long story… I was married to the very agent who helped change our lives. He never was happy in the open marriage we had back then, so I divorced him to make him happy. He helped save me when I was held captive by a lunatic trying to ruin a splatfest and our company reputation," Aero elaborated.

"The way he fought just filled me with inspiration. I needed to be a stronger person for Aero. If it hadn't been for him and the other agents, we'd be out of jobs. We also are engaged now!" Onyx added, explaining how Maize had inspired him so much. The older inkling was happy to hear to hear both of their experiences.

"Thank you for your time. Do you think I could get inside?" she requested from the door guard, seeing him shake his head.

"Lady, I won't even let these two fakers inside! Why would I let you in? Can you three just go? Ya're just making my job more annoying," the guard requested. He was at least trying to be polite about the whole situation. The old squid sighed.

"Onyx, did you know that a good straight hit to the chin has a high chance of instantly knocking someone out?" the elder spoke to the black inkling.

"…don't mind if I do," Onyx gained a devious grin across his face. The door guard gulped, and just like that, one strong punch knocked him out cold on, bringing him to the ground.

"Thank you!" Aero let out a sigh of relief, the three heading inside. Once they got inside, Aero and Onyx were off to hurry to their meeting. The elder was happy to be of help. She began her walk down the halls, approaching the door to the Squid Sisters' news room.

"I do hope I'm not going to be a bother… but sometimes, choices are lacking," she muttered before grabbing the door handle and pulling it open. Inside, she noticed a rather live audience today. Aureolin and Basil were sitting off to the side, happily watching the news report.

"And uhh… err… stay fresh?" Callie confusedly spoke with two cameras rolling on her and her cousin. Marie let out a huff of frustration.

"Alright, cut! You two messed up the teleprompter again…" Marie exclaimed for the cameras to be stopped. Sadly, without the teleprompter, the black inkling lost all ability to talk, and her stage fright would then take over due to not having anything to focus on. Thankfully, this was a recording session for later updates in the day and not live on air.

"Well sorry, ma'am. It's hard to work with manacles binding my wrists," a familiar voice spoke up. Behind camera one was Cornell, the familiar inkling in handcuffs. He no longer had a trench coat, but a regular sweater. He was looking quite annoyed at his new job.

"To be fair, it might have also been my incompetence that messed it up, too," Mauve added from behind camera two. They had become the new camera crew for the Squid Sisters' studio. Basil and Aureolin wanted to make sure a heated argument didn't break out.

"Umm, guys, there's a visitor," Basil spoke up from beside his girlfriend on the small sofa, they had been offered to watch their performance. The old squid saw the Squid Sisters step out from the wall they normally stood at.

"Oh, welcome. How can we help you?" Marie welcomed the elder inkling. However, Callie seemed more surprised to see the face of this elder. It looked all too familiar to someone they knew, and her white tentacled cousin was picking up on the same train of thought.

"You're all members of the Special Squid Services, correct?" she asked that same question once more. Cornell raised one of his handcuffed hands.

"Not me. I'm only here under the new prison work program. I get to do work daily, but I have to go back to the prison at night," Cornell answered. At least he was able to work to help reduce his personal jail sentence on the grounds of good behavior, which was not as long as he anticipated it to be. Cornell only received eight months of jail time for the assault on the splatfest. Needless to say, everyone was stunned originally when they found out about the sentencing.

"Yeah! We're Agents 1 and 2," Callie happily answered, letting the elder take a seat at the table that she and her cousin normally sat at for breaks. The black inkling got a spare chair from nearby and brought it over, Marie taking a seat as well.

"I'm Agent 15, Mauve," Mauve introduced himself.

"Agent 16 is me," Basil chuckled.

"I somehow got stuck with Agent 17," Aureolin sighed, wishing she had gotten a lower number. For some odd reason, the number 17 bugged her, but she was happy to be an agent with her boyfriend. Cornell went off to attend to his own matters and repair the teleprompter.

"So… what are you doing here, Apricot?" Marie immediately popped the one question. This was definitely Maize and Fallow's mother who had been going around interrogating each agent, all for some peculiar reason. Marie had seen pictures containing Apricot, and Maize had told his girlfriend all about his mother over a date.

"Please. It's for personal reasons. Can you tell me how my son has helped you all?" the yellow elder requested. Marie seemed particularly embarrassed a bit to recall that.

"Well, he helped save my sleep schedule, though I've been fired three times since. Working as a cameraman for the Squid Sisters is the first job I've ever had outside of construction," Mauve exclaimed. It seemed like no matter where he went to work, his luck was poor, and one thing after another happened. It was like the cursed Hammerhead Bridge had placed a bad luck curse on him that vowed to follow him for the rest of his days. However, the purple inkling was glad to be working for the Squid Sisters. They were a lot more merciful than any of his previous bosses. The purple squid then went to help Cornell.

"There are so many things Maize has done for us. Heck, it's impossible to recall every one of them. The three of us fought an army together and saved Inkopolis without anyone knowing… the second time we saved Inkopolis was acknowledge by everyone. But I think the biggest thing Maize has done for me is give me my son," Callie explained. She had no regrets for the adoption, and she knew that she never will. Bondi was at home with Judd as the squishie's babysitter. Basil and Aureolin seemed a bit upset at the reminder of their son, but they still knew that he was in good hands.

"Yeah I messed up a lot and ruined my entire family… he had to beat a lot of sense into me" Basil added, looking to his yellow tentacled girlfriend who nodded.

"I had Maize promise me that he'd find Bondi a caring loving family. He fulfilled it, and because of him, our relationship is repaired. We owe him so much. That's why we became members for the Special Squid Service," Aureolin continued for her boyfriend, aware that he was still having trouble coping with the guilt for all he had done. Maize's mother seemed happy to know her son was able to help out so much. She looked to Marie, who seemed to be in a similar position as her cousin. Once again they synced up too well.

"Err… well, rescuing our grandfather and somehow changing so many people's hearts… it still astonishes us a lot… and how he saved the entire Cars vs Planes splatfest from Cornell… he helped restore my spirits as well, and we started dating a couple of months ago," Marie explained the best she could think up of the key moments that had all popped up in her head, but once again, Maize had such a list of things he had done for the two of them.

"And you're pregnant… right?" Apricot guessed. All eyes in the room fell on Marie as she gained that nervous grin.

"He promised to help me have a squishie if I wanted one after a month of deciding. I'm only a month and a half along in the pregnancy," Marie nodded. She was indeed pregnant with Maize and her squishie. Mauve clapped in congratulations. However the atmosphere in the room was too awkward aside from Cornell who was just focusing on his work.

"Wo-wow! Marie! That's great! You decided to go through with the in vitro fertilization?" Callie said in glee after processing the news. She was quite happy to hear that she was going to be an aunt as well.

"Ah, jeez… and I thought Maize made things awkward…" Marie muttered, rolling her eyes, looking embarrassed. Apricot however seemed to show the same smile, glad to know she was going to be a grandmother.

"But no, we didn't go through with the in vitro. I convinced him that we should do it more… naturally, so to speak… needless to say, he was flustered, worked up, embarrassed and awkward, however else would describe him. But we got it done," Marie explained, and just like that, the awkwardness was back for more. Maize was fully aware he was going to be a father. However the two were planning to not tell anyone for a couple of months, mostly out of fear of Captain Cuttlefish's reaction.

"He's really that bad in bed?" Basil quirked, only to get punched in the back of the head by his girlfriend for even imagining that scene. They watched Apricot stand up, not losing that same smile her son always had when he was happy.

"Well, congratulations. I hope you two have a good future. Maize is the first person in the Dagenhart family tree to fulfill his decision to the tradition... I need to go I have one more stop to make before I leave Inkopolis," Apricot explained. Everyone in the Dagenhart family tree were raised, believing that trying was everything. No one ever had successfully changed the world like Maize had done, which was just to bring two races to peace, but it was still great. Before Maize's mother could get out the door, Marie spoke up.

"He-hey, wait! How'd you know I was pregnant, anyway?" Agent 2 had to ask. She had no real signs of her pregnancy yet, not even food cravings, and she had not yet put on any real noticeable weight. Apricot winked to her.

"You had a radiance about you. After all, I've raised 4 children and birthed three of them. It's just easy to tell after it all," Apricot explained. She had one more thing to say before she took leave.

"Please don't tell Maize I was here. I don't want him to try searching for me," the yellow elder inkling requested to not let her son be informed of her presence in Inkopolis.

"Why not? Maize misses you a lot," Callie requested an answer, wanting to know one reason why they shouldn't tell Maize the truth. His mother was working quite elusively for one reason or another. This seemed to strike an emotional nerve for his mother.

"…Inkopolis and Mollusk Metropolis may have peace, but outside of them, there are still many problems that are occurring… I hope to be of help to those in need while I still can be, and I do not want my son to worry just about me so horribly. I prefer him to keep me in his heart, than in his mind," Apricot explained. Aureolin, Basil, Mauve and Cornell knew they were not going to remotely get out of this room until they agreed to keep quiet by some insane threat by the Squid Sisters. Callie and Marie understood, watching Apricot close the door behind her as she headed off to leave the studio.

"Wait… did she say she had… four children?" Callie looked to her cousin. The white inkling was just as shocked by this. It seemed Maize and Fallow had more family than they were aware of, and maybe they will never know about it. Any chance they had to inquire with his mother was now gone.

At another part of Inkopolis, Maize's brand new splatterscope dangled from his shoulder as he walked through one big building. His one tentacle also dangled off to the side of his head carelessly. He lost care for keeping his hair in a good state. A green and purple sweater was firmly coated around him. He entered through the front doors, to see a rather empty room. There were a few sets of doors ahead.

"Oi, Maize," a familiar scratchy voice rung out. He saw Umber nearby with his ink brush on his back.

"Hey there, Agent 19," Maize greeted as the two began to walk together, heading through the second door from the left. It was a long hallway that was full of pieces of art that looked to be poorly kept maintained.

"I have a name, y'know," Umber reminded, chuckling. He had become an agent shortly after everything that had occurred.

"Sorry. Guess I'm just excited to know how big the Special Squid Services is growing," Agent 3 apologized as they entered through the door. He had recruited Umber to be a trainer, one of the few he had to hire for the jobs he needed for each role. They entered through the door at the end of the hall, arriving to something of a large gym, where inklings and octolings were seen exercising.

"Yo, bro!" Fallow's voice chimed. They saw her hopping toward them, seeming blissful while wearing a whistle around her neck.

"Hey, Fallow. How's the usual regiment going for them?" Maize asked.

"It's really jive! Also today, we got another five members. With all of them, and you'll clearly know how, we may have over sixty agents now!" she exclaimed. They had recruited so many agents these last few months, all of who were learning every day how to improve their skills or basic combat, or even how to handle any situation that may arise, considering calm ones were not that rare now.

"That's great, sis! Me and Umber are gonna go see how the cap'n and Octavio are doing," Maize told her. His sister nodded before blowing loudly into her whistle at the group of drained and sweaty agents.

"I saw some of you slacking! No backing out now! Fifty push ups!" Fallow ordered in rhyme, hearing some dismayed groans of the training agents. Basic exercise was a lot more draining than any of them expected it to be. Agent 6 was more than glad to play drill sergeant to them. Maize and Umber continued through into the next room.

"Ah, this is my place," Umber chuckled. In this room, not four, but tons of walls were set up. There were three mini turf war arenas set up, and within there appeared to be a training spot for weapons, specifically from sloshers to splatling guns, to chargers and rollers. Here they saw more inklings and octolings, but instead they were being trained on how to be used effectively.

"Glad you two showed up as late as usual," they heard, seeing Fulvous nearby. She was working with the splatling gun agents, and a lot of them looked like they were having enough trouble lifting the heavy weapons alone.

"Ey, don't go looking at me. I had to wait on'im. I better go meet up with my students," Umber wandered off toward the ink brush wielding rollers, which were his personal students. Whatever weapon they picked decided what teacher they then received for said weapon. The exercise was required, though the agents rotated separately throughout the day, about who was exercising and who was training, and the current group handling missions at the time.

"Where have you been?" Fulvous asked. Maize chuckled. He was the trainer for chargers, which had a huge target range set up to handle targets from all sizes and heights for hard training.

"Calm down, Fulvous. You know the first key to being a charger is being patient and calm… or at least that's my excuse," the yellow inkling responded, very cheerful today. Agent 7 sighed, rubbing her head.

"Yeah, your students will buy that. Captain Cuttlefish wants to see you," Fulvous pointed him to up ahead, where the hand to hand inklings and octarians were training.

"Thanks. You take care," Maize told Fulvous before splitting off, letting her get back to the agents training with splatling guns, noticing one of the new agents who had accidentally dropped his splatling gun and dented it.

"Hey! You've gotta treat your weapons like they're your family! Don't forget that! I should know I lost Sasha and Natascha!" Fulvous exclaimed. Her weapons had been broken months ago during the showdown with the Abraliopsis Morisii, and now she had to settle with new weapons.

Maize approached the hand to hand training area, where more inklings and octolings were practicing different styles of combat on each other. Captain Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio were overseeing this. The two of them were having troubles agreeing on how to train the agents, but it was working out.

"Oh! Hey there, squiddo!" Captain Cuttlefish greeted, Maize all too happy to see him.

"Greetings," Octavio welcomed Agent 3. They had gotten along together a lot better ever since they had saved the two cities.

"I was told you needed to see me?" Maize asked, wondering if something was wrong with some of their agents. Of course there were some problems that needed overseeing, which usually the two elders could handle.

"Yeah. We've got two promising agents on our hands. Their first mission went horribly off the rails, but still they pulled it through," Captain Cuttlefish explained before whistling, stopping all of the practicing students.

"Turquoise! Octotyne!" DJ Octavio called for them. They saw two young ones approach, both barely looking to be fifteen years old. One was a light blue inkling with his tentacles tied up behind his head, wearing a pink shirt that had an odd yellow star on it. He had an eye patch on his left eye and an odd scar on his cheek below the eye. Beside him stood an octoling in a red coat, his tentacles done up into an odd style on the side of his head that looked like a side Mohawk.

"Yes sir?" they both said, bowing to them. It was DJ Octavio's teachings that had made the agents training do that bow, to show respect to the ones teaching them.

"This is Agent 3," Captain Cuttlefish introduced them. The two kids looked awestruck to see one of the many heroes of the city, but Maize was also an inspirational squid who made all other agents aim to do their best and help everyone they could, no matter what it took.

"It's nice to meet you, Turquoise and Octotyne," Maize smiled shaking their hands. They seemed like the youngest agents in this entire building.

"Wo-wow!" Turquoise stuttered, astonished, so much that he had almost gone numb.

"You are so cool…" Octotyne added in awe.

"Do you mind if I asked what happened to you, little guy?" Maize requested to Turquoise about how he wound up needing an eye patch. The light blue squid scratched his head before grabbing the octoling's hand in his for reassurance.

"A-about that… …a few years ago… Dad fo-found out about my secret boyfriend and decided to take a-a heated up knife to my face…" Turquoise honestly answered Maize felt horrible to know that had happened to a squid before they were even a fully developed inkling

"He's got life though… wh-when we saw the advertisements to join the Special Squid Services academy, we wanted to join immediately!" Octotyne exclaimed. DJ Octavio chuckled, Captain Cuttlefish finding it admirable to know that they had turned a past of pain into a hope to help make others' lives better.

"Heh. You two are pretty crisp and fresh," Maize claimed, saluting them. They saluted back in awe.

"We-we're Agents 39 and 40. We'll do our best!" they said in unison. The young boys' relationship made them sync up as well as the Squid Sisters did, which was quite eerie. Captain Cuttlefish heard his cellphone begin ringing an odd ring tone one. He seemed a bit confused to hear.

"You squiddies show Agent 3 here your new moves. I'll be back in a minute," the elderly inkling requested, grabbing his cane before beginning to walk away. Maize was glad to take over for the captain and let the young agents show their best to him.

"I didn't think you'd return my call, after ya ignored the last one when I needed ya," Captain Cuttlefish spoke while walking through a side door on the left that seemed to lead toward outside.

"I did! I informed Fallow anonymously that everyone was in grave danger, and then she went and saved you all!" Apricot responded over the phone. Cuttlefish was referring to the time when Taupe and his cultists first attacked him and DJ Octavio ages ago. He had tried to ring up Maize's mother to request for help. Sadly, there was not one answer, which led him to ditch his phone on the table before Taupe captured them. Apricot had anonymously contacted her adoptive daughter and informed Fallow to get as much help as she could to save Maize and company, or else Inkopolis and Mollusk Metropolis would have been doomed to destruction and death. Thankfully, Fallow did just that and saved the day with the backup of the early on new agents.

"Oh. Well, my apologies then. Where are ya?" Captain Cuttlefish asked as he exited into the outside. There was a small brick wall and a lot of trees and bushes around outside a window that looked into the training room.

"I'm right beside you," Apricot answered, putting her cellphone away, almost giving the old war veteran a heart attack. He tried to calm down, pocketing his phone.

"What brings ya here? You agreed when we traded phone numbers, we'd only use them whenever we needed each other's help," Captain Cuttlefish reminded, though noticed her looking through the window, inspecting Maize and Fallow. The yellow squid's sister had come to her brother to request help with adjusting her oxygen tank. Apricot was looking quite upset.

"I do need your help, captain. I need you to watch out for Maize and Fallow for me," Apricot requested. This confused him as he looked through the window as well. The bushes and shadows kept them well hidden.

"Umm… I know it's not nice to talk about, but you do know I probably only got at least a couple more years left in me, right? I'm glad to have been of help to you and ya family, but my time's almost up. Maybe it's time to show yourself back into their lives," Captain Cuttlefish responded. As sad as it was, the old inkling doubted he would live another ten years. He would be lucky if he made it another five, and Maize's mother was not even half his age yet.

"Yes… but I only have a few months. I have to attend to my other children and make sure they're alright … but I had to come see Maize and Fallow one last time," Apricot sniffled. The two were somewhat secret acquaintances. The captain was not happy to be keeping a secret from two of his best agents, but that was the deal to help her get back on track with life.

"Apricot, y'know as well as I do that your two kids there don't need me to watch over'em. And don't worry, they got each other and all their friends and close ones," Captain Cuttlefish reminded the mother of four. He saw her wipe her eyes, turning to the even older inkling.

"You helped me… all those years ago. Do you remember that?" Apricot asked. He nodded, chuckling.

"Yeup… I found you crying right by the drain pipe to Octo Valley. You told me all about how your husband had abused you, and you had drove off and ditched your car so he couldn't track you…" Captain Cuttlefish began, recalling the time all too long ago that they first met.

"You transferred me a million coins from your own personal coin card, just so I could start a new life outside of Inkopolis," she continued while rummaging around in her pockets, looking for something.

"And you promised you'd make it up to me. But really, your son's made it up to me by tenfold," Captain Cuttlefish reassured. However his eyes went wide when he saw her pull out a large pearl and holding it out to him. Pearls were worth bundles of money and were quite rare. Whenever one was found someone could make millions off it.

"I'm a Dagenhart, captain. I need to fulfill my promises, after all," Apricot tossed him the pearl. He caught it, amazed that he was being given this. He watched Maize's mother begin to walk away. She had to go see her other two children, that were unknown to the captain. The elder squid looked inside through the window once more. He could see Maize and Fallow, who both had Octotyne and Turquoise on their backs and having Fulvous take a picture of them for the young agents. Captain Cuttlefish gained a smile, nodding.

"You Dagenharts are the best thing that has happened to our cities in a long time," Captain Cuttlefish spoke to himself before he pocketed the valuable pearl and headed back to get inside, ready to move on and continue training the new agents. He was going to keep things quiet from Maize and Fallow, exactly what their mother requested, and what he was going to keep for her. When he got back inside, the old squid saw Maize teaching Turquoise about chargers, keeping that bright smile.

Everything had changed so much over the course of just a few months, and in the end, nearly everyone was better off for it. Lives were changed, the world was evolving, and these agents were going to help the world change even more lives for the greater good. If any more problems arose, they would be ready, no matter what.


End file.
